Liberalism, Fascism, or Social Democracy Social Classes and the Political Origins of Regimes in Interwar Europe

by Luebbert, Gregory M.; Collier, David; Lipset, Seymour Martin

• ISBN13: 9780195066104
• ISBN10: 0195066103
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1991-07-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This work provides a sweeping historical analysis of the political development of Western Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Arguing that the evolution of most Western European nations into liberal democracies, social democracies, or fascist regimes was attributable to a discrete set of social class alliances, the author explores the origins and outcomes of the political development in the individual nations. In Britain, France, and Switzerland, countries with a unified middle class, liberal forces established political hegemony before World War I. By coopting considerable sections of the working class with reforms that weakened union movements, liberals essentially excluded the fragmented working class from the political process, remaining in power throughout the inter-war period. In countries with a strong, cohesive working class and a fractured middle class, Luebbert points out, a liberal solution was impossible. In Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia, political coalitions of social democrats and the "family peasantry" emerged as a result of the First World War, leading to social democratic governments. In Italy, Spain, and Germany, on the other hand, the urban middle class united with a peasantry hostile to socialism to facilitate the rise of fascism.

Author Biography

The late Gregory M. Luebbert was Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The Origins
Ties That Would Divide: Liberal-Labor Alliances in Britain, France, and Switzerland before the War	p. 15
Britain	p. 15
France	p. 27
Weakness of the Labor Movement in Britain and France	p. 37
Switzerland	p. 48
Epilogue	p. 52
Cleavage Structures and the Failure of Liberal Movements in Late Nineteenth-Century Europe	p. 55
Liberal Weakness: A Survey	p. 56
Some Explanations of Liberal Weakness	p. 59
Cleavage Structures and the Failure of Liberal Movements	p. 63
Modernization, Cleavages, and Political Struggles	p. 97
Where Backwardness Mattered	p. 98
Epilogue	p. 107
The Break with Liberalism and the Formation of Working-Class Movements	p. 110
Abortive Lib-Labism and the Rise of Working-Class Movements	p. 110
Germany	p. 115
Norway	p. 121
Sweden	p. 125
Denmark	p. 133
Belgium and the Netherlands	p. 139
Italy	p. 144
Spain	p. 151
Imperialism, Nationalism, and Class Integration	p. 153
A Note on Leadership and Choice	p. 156
Epilogue	p. 157
The Organization of Workers: Liberal and Aliberal Societies Compared	p. 159
Parties	p. 159
Trade Unions: Membership and Organizational Coherence	p. 169
A Note on Industrial Concentration	p. 180
A Note on the Role of the State	p. 181
Epilogue: Toward the Great War	p. 184
The Outcomes
War, Crisis, and the Stabilization of the Liberal Order	p. 191
Postwar Crises and Liberal Responses	p. 194
The Defeat of the Working-Class Movement	p. 199
Stabilization of the Liberal Order	p. 226
Epilogue	p. 232
Narrowing the Aliberal Outcomes: Liberalism's Final Failure and the Irrelevance of Traditional Dictatorship	p. 234
Neither Liberalism Nor Lib-Labism	p. 236
Politics against Markets	p. 249
Irrelevance of Traditional Dictatorship	p. 258
Social Democracy and Fascism	p. 267
Social Democracy: The Scandinavian Solution	p. 267
Fascism: The Solution of Germany, Italy, and Spain	p. 272
Family Peasantry: A Pivotal Force	p. 277
Red-Green Alliance and Social Democratic Hegemony	p. 285
Rural Class Conflicts and Fascist Hegemony	p. 295
Epilogue	p. 303
Conclusion: Class Alliances and Transition to Mass Politics	p. 306
A Structuralist Argument	p. 306
Structuralism and Other Arguments Compared	p. 307
Drawing Lessons from Europe	p. 310
Notes	p. 317
Bibliography	p. 377
Index	p. 403
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.