Political violence, paramilitary organisations and democracy in the interwar period

Abstract

The interwar period experienced an unprecedented paramilitarization because, in many cases, important political forces sought to achieve power more through the use of violence than through the ballot box. This article analyses this process, with special reference to the role of young people and to what happened in Germany and Spain. It shows the fragility of democracy in the period analyzed and how this is a historical construction that can never be considered to be safe from its enemies.