CONDITIONS OF DEMOCRACY IN INTERWAR EUROPE - A BOOLEAN TEST OF MAJOR HYPOTHESES

Major hypotheses concerning conditions conducive to the breakdown or survival of democratic regimes in sixteen European states in the interwar period are tested in a systematic comparative manner on the basis of Boolean methods. These hypotheses take into account a wide variety of socioeconomic, social structural, political cultural, and institutional factors, as well as specific historical sequences and other dynamic and actor-related effects. The tests clearly exhibit the respective strengths and weaknesses and remaining contradictions of the various approaches. They provide a first ''pruning'' of some of the more important aspects of empirical democratic theory which can be conducted in a ''quasi-experimental'' design. The findings point to further modifications and applications elsewhere, including some consequences for contemporary developments.