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

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

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195066111
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/25/1991
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	9.25(w) x 6.13(h) x 1.12(d)

Table of Contents

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

Editorial Reviews

"An exceptional piece of scholarship. It deserves to be required reading for any student of European politics or political development."—Journal of Politics

"Luebbert's book is an impressive achievement in its comparative scope and its unrelenting, tenacious defense of a clear analytical thesis."—American Political Science Review

"Comprehensive, original, beautifully argued."—Mary Anderson, Holy Names College

From the Publisher