Suchergebnisse

An examination of 61 occasions on which democracy has been terminated in the twentieth century illustrates that military coups & foreign invasion feature predominantly. Where democracy is of long standing, foreign invasion has been much more likely than extremism to be the cause. Cultural & ethnic cleavages may call for special institutional arrangements, though often they may prohibit democracy. Ideological & SE conflict, leading to public disorder, certainly preceded the interwar overthrow of democracy in Italy & Germany; however, there were special features of their situations, & analogies between the Weimar Republic & the position of long-standing democracies today are most inapposite. While there may be some disturbing aspects of modern democratic society, the "crisis of democracy" literature vastly exaggerates their threat to the democratic process. Ordinary democratic citizens, with more stable attitudes than those of intellectuals, contribute greatly to the legitimacy of democratic regimes. 1 Table, 49 References. HA