The Resilience of the Old Regime - Paths Around Democracy in Europe, 1832–1919

In The Resilience of the Old Regime, David Art reevaluates the so-called first wave of democratization in Western Europe through the lens of authoritarian resilience. He argues that non-democrats succeeded to a very large degree in managing, diverting, disrupting, and repressing democratic movements until the end of the First World War. This was true both in states political scientists have long considered either full democracies or democratic vanguards (such as the UK and Sweden), as well as in others (such as Germany and Italy) that appeared to be democratizing. He challenges both the Whiggish view that democracy in the West moved progressively forward, and the influential theory that threats of revolution explain democratization. Drawing on extensive historical sources and data, Art recasts European political development from 1832-1919 as a period in which competitive oligarchies and competitive authoritarian regimes predominated.

List of contents

1. The first wave and the study of democracy; 2. Paths around democracy in Europe; 3. Designing competitive Oligarchy in the United Kingdom; 4. The European Origins of competitive authoritarianism; 5. Wilhelmine Germany and Edwardian England; 6. Authoritarian resilience in Northern Europe; 7. Competitive Oligarchy to competitive authoritarianism in Italy; 8. World war one and democratization in Europe; 9. Conclusion.

About the author

David Art is Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. He is the author of The Politics of the Nazi Past in Germany and Austria (Cambridge, 2006) and Inside the Radical Right (Cambridge, 2011) and is a faculty affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University.

Product details

• Authors: Art David
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 31.03.2026
• EAN: 9781009710725
• ISBN: 978-1-009-71072-5
• Weight: 500 g
• Illustrations: Worked examples or Exercises
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, POLITICAL SCIENCE / American Government / General, c 1800 to c 1900, Political structures: democracy, Later 19th century c 1850 to c 1899, Regional Studies, Political Economy, c 1910 to c 1919, Western Europe, Regional / International studies, c 1914 to c 1918 (including WW1), Early 19th century c 1800 to c 1850, Political structures: totalitarianism & dictatorship, C 1900 - C 1914, c 1900 to c 1909, Western Continental Europe, Political structures / systems: democracy