Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy

A bold re-interpretation of democracy's historical rise in Europe, Ziblatt highlights the surprising role of conservative political parties with sweeping implications for democracy today.

Daniel Ziblatt (Author)

9781107001626, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 April 2017

448 pages
23.5 x 15.7 x 2.9 cm, 0.75 kg

'… a brilliant scholarly work …' Fareed Zakaria, The Washington Post

How do democracies form and what makes them die? Daniel Ziblatt revisits this timely and classic question in a wide-ranging historical narrative that traces the evolution of modern political democracy in Europe from its modest beginnings in 1830s Britain to Adolf Hitler's 1933 seizure of power in Weimar Germany. Based on rich historical and quantitative evidence, the book offers a major reinterpretation of European history and the question of how stable political democracy is achieved. The barriers to inclusive political rule, Ziblatt finds, were not inevitably overcome by unstoppable tides of socioeconomic change, a simple triumph of a growing middle class, or even by working class collective action. Instead, political democracy's fate surprisingly hinged on how conservative political parties – the historical defenders of power, wealth, and privilege – recast themselves and coped with the rise of their own radical right. With striking modern parallels, the book has vital implications for today's new and old democracies under siege.

1. Two patterns of democratization
2. The old regime and the conservative dilemma
3. From 1688 to mass politics: British democratization
4. A virtuous cycle? Conservative strength and Britain's settled path, 1884–1906
5. Averting a democratic disaster in Britain, 1906–1922
6. Weak party conservatism and the case of Germany
7. Stalled democratization in Germany before 1914
8. The unsettled path: conservative weakness in Weimar Germany, 1918–1928
9. A deluge: conservative weakness and democratic breakdown in Germany
10. How countries democratize: Europe and beyond
11. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]