Abstract
Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe. By Giovanni Capoccia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005. 352p. $49.95.This study elaborates a central aspect of Juan Linz's (1978) Crisis, Breakdown, and Re-equilibration: a focus on choices made by democratic incumbents facing extremist challengers aiming to install nondemocratic rule. To put it in Linzian terms, Giovanni Capoccia seeks to develop Linz's “mentality” on that subject into a more systematic statement. Linz claimed that these leaders' choices are crucial, and he illustrated with examples; Capoccia rightly proposes that such a claim deserves monographic treatment in its own right. His effort is illuminating on several counts but falls short of full persuasiveness on others.
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