As we look
at the governments of the various countries of Europe today, we see, not
surprisingly, a great variety. Some,
such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany have reasonably robust
democracies. Others, such as Hungary,
have a form of populism that borders on authoritarianism. Illiberal democracy is often used to describe
the governments of Poland and Turkey.
Our S/DG
will study how these and the other major countries of Europe arrived at their
current state. (For this S/DG Europe
will stop at the border of the former Soviet Union.) To guide us in our study, we will read Democracy
and Dictatorship in Europe by Sheri Berman, a professor of Political
Science at Barnard College, Columbia University. The subtitle of the book, From the Ancien
Régime to the Present Day, gives the historical time periods covered. The chapter titles, shown in the weekly
topics below, give an excellent idea of the topics covered. In week 10 we will read and discuss an
article (to be provided) by Sheri Berman and a colleague.
For each of
the countries and time periods covered, our book gives us the political, economic,
and social conditions that help us understand why that country went the way it
did at that particular time. Berman
believes that the ultimate goal for any country is “consolidated liberal
democracy,” with elections, the rule of law, individual liberties, and minority
rights. That is a rare, and hard-won
achievement. A step forward is often
followed by a step back. We will see why
democracy is so difficult to achieve.
In our study of liberal
democracies, we will explore the tension between democracy—rule by the
people that can slide into repression of minority views, and liberal—respect
for each individual.
In a
sentence with a lot of long words, Francis Fukuyama well says: “Sheri Berman is
one of the best comparativists going, providing an encompassing framework for
understanding the historical development of modern institutions.”
I don’t
think we have to worry about not having enough to talk about every week.
Week |
Reading |
1 |
Ch. 1.
Questions about Political Development |
Ch. 2.
The Ancien Régime |
|
2 |
Ch. 3.
English Exceptionalism |
Ch. 4.
The French Revolution |
|
3 |
Ch. 5.
1848 |
Ch. 6.
The French Third Republic |
|
4 |
Ch. 7.
Italian Unification |
Ch. 8. German
Unification |
|
5 |
Ch. 9.
The Struggle for Democracy in Interwar France |
Ch. 10.
English Exceptionalism II |
|
6 |
Ch. 11.
The Collapse of Democracy and the Rise of Fascism in Italy |
Ch. 12. The Collapse of the Weimar Republic and the Rise of National Socialism in Germany |
|
7 |
Ch. 13.
Political Development in Spain |
Ch. 14.
The Consolidation of Democracy in Western Europe |
|
8 |
Ch. 15. The Transition to Communist Dictatorships in East-Central Europe |
Ch. 16.
The Transition to Democracy in Spain |
|
9 |
Ch. 17.
The Transition to Democracy in East Central Europe |
Ch. 18.
Lessons from Europe |
|
10 |
Sheri Berman and Maria Snegovaya. "Populism and the Decline of Social Democracy.” Journal of Democracy, July
2019. |
Sheri Berman, Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day. Oxford University Press, 2019
Sheri Berman & Maria Snegovaya, "Populism and the Decline of Social Democracy," Journal of Democracy (July 2019), 19 pp.