Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy

Daniel Ziblatt is Professor of Government at Harvard University, Massachusetts where he is also a resident fellow of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He is also currently Fernand Braudel Senior Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. His first book, Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism (2006) received several prizes from the American Political Science Association. He has also written extensively on the emergence of democracy in European political history, publishing in journals such as American Political Science Review, the Journal of Economic History, and World Politics. Ziblatt has held visiting fellowships and professorships at Sciences Po, Paris; the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Germany; Stanford University, California; the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Massachusetts; and the Center for Advanced Studies, Munich, Germany.

'Daniel Ziblatt has written an incredibly important book about the development of democracy in Europe. Based on in-depth qualitative research and extremely innovative use of quantitative data, he has given us a new picture of German and British political development in particular. Focusing on opponents of democratization, Ziblatt asks why anti-democratic elites accepted democratization in some places (like Britain) but vociferously and often violently opposed it in other places (like Germany). Ziblatt points to the strength of conservative parties as the key variable. This book will be invaluable to anyone interested in European political history, democratization more generally, and the ways in which thoughtful historical research can illuminate contemporary debates.' Sheri Berman, Barnard College, New York

• 1. Two patterns of democratization; 2. The old regime and the conservative dilemma; 3. From 1688 to mass politics: British democratization; 4. A virtuous cycle? Conservative strength and Britain's settled path, 1884–1906; 5. Averting a democratic disaster in Britain, 1906–1922; 6. Weak party conservatism and the case of Germany; 7. Stalled democratization in Germany before 1914; 8. The unsettled path: conservative weakness in Weimar Germany, 1918–1928; 9. A deluge: conservative weakness and democratic breakdown in Germany; 10. How countries democratize: Europe and beyond; 11. Conclusion.