Die fragile Demokratisierung in Ostmitteleuropa in der Zwischenkriegszeit [The fragile democratization in East Central Europe in the interwar period

Abstract

ABSTRACT At the end of the First World War a number of new national states emerged from the three disintegrating empires of tsarist Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary. At the outset nearly all of these states in East Central Europe were liberal democracies based on the 1875 constitutional laws of the French Third Republic (1870–1940). Shortly afterwards, however, these liberal democracies were transformed into various forms of political dictatorship, the only exception being Czechoslovakia. This article focuses on the different reasons for this failure of democracy, based on a comparison between the failing democracies and the only stable democracy in the region. It draws conclusions for the decay of political democracies based on problematic issues such as the high degree of government instability, ethnic tensions, and political violence. The following factors are emphasized in this article: the influence of the geopolitical interests of the war victors; the subtle changes in the zeitgeist of the interwar period; the effects of different stages and tensions in the process of political modernization in the respective countries; and the impact of moral concepts of the leading politicians on political change.