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Weyland examines how fears of Communism arising from the Russian Revolution prompted a right-wing backlash that overthrew democracy in many European and some Latin American countries during the interwar years. This book is of interest to scholars of comparative politics, history, and Latin American and European studies.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Theory: the double deterrent effect and the bounds of rationality; 3. The soviet precedent and the wave of isomorphic emulation efforts; 4. The suppression of isomorphic emulation efforts and its limited regime effects; 5. Persistence of the communist threat and rising appeal of fascism; 6. The German exception: emulating full-scale fascism; 7. The spread of fascist movements - yet of authoritarian regimes; 8. Conservative-fascist relations and the autocratic reverse wave; 9. The edges of the autocratic wave: battered democracy and populist authoritarianism; 10. Conclusion; Bibliography.
About the author
Kurt Weyland is Mike Hogg Professor in Liberal Arts in the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of five other books and approximately 50 journal articles and book chapters. His book, Making Waves (Cambridge University Press, 2014) won Best Book Award for APSA's Comparative Democratization section.
Summary
Weyland examines how fears of Communism arising from the Russian Revolution prompted a right-wing backlash that overthrew democracy in many European and some Latin American countries during the interwar years. This book is of interest to scholars of comparative politics, history, and Latin American and European studies.
Additional text
'A massive wave of autocracy spread across the world a century ago, culminating in the destruction of World War II. What caused this illiberal cascade, and what does it tell us about modern challenges to democracy? In this brilliant and timely work, Kurt Weyland shows how an intense fear of radical politics drove the spread of interwar dictators. The anxieties produced by threats of both leftwing and rightwing radicalism, while often irrational and self-serving, became a powerful force for justifying autocratic rule. Combining an elegant theoretical framework with careful historical detail, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in the long-term evolution of democracy.' Seva Gunitsky, University of Toronto
