The Death of Democratic Republics in the 1930s: Germany, Austria, Spain

2025/05/05 by Ángel Alcalde · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #European history and politics

paper · pdf · doi:10.1515/9783111705446-021

openalex publication_date 2025/05/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06

Abstract

This chapter examines how Republics died in the interwar period, focusing on the cases of the Weimar Republic, the Austrian Republic, and the Spanish Second Republic.First, the chapter introduces various traditional interpretations of the demise of liberal democracies and rise of authoritarianism in interwar Europe.Then, the chapter provides a review of historical developments in Italy, Germany, Austria and Spain, noting the factors that most commonly allow historians to explain the end of democracies in the 1920s and 1930s.In the last part of the chapter, a new interpretive model is proposed, which highlights transnational processes, namely the influence and direct intervention of Italian fascists in Europe, as the key to understand why various interwar democratic Republics fell.

Discussions

• @angelalcalde.bsky.social analyses the interwar authoritarian parties as a genuinely international movement, comparing Germany, Austria and Spain. He argues that we understand fascism better if we see [bsky, 4 points, 1 comments]

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