ONE TOUGH BLOOM :

How democracy is preserved (Amitai Etzioni, August 27, 2002, Jewish World Review)

Social scientists who study the conditions under which democracy is lost have little to work with.

Democracy – once firmly established – has almost never been lost because of internal developments (as distinct from because of occupation by an invading force).

The one notable exception is the Weimar Republic. What happened there is subject to a much contested literature. However, most agree that following the defeat of Germany in World War I, the people's pride was deeply shaken, and they felt further threatened by massive unemployment and hyperinflation. The Weimar government, weakened by squabbles among numerous parties, corruption, and scandals, was unable to muster an effective response. As a result, "too many Germans did not regard it as a legitimate regime," writes E.J. Feuchtwanger in his book "From Weimar to Hitler."

In short, inaction in the face of threats, not excessive action, killed the Weimar Republic.

At some point, as we realize that America has just about the most stable government the world has ever seen, we'll need to consider whether our democracy is really the oh so delicate blossom of our rhetorical imaginations or whether it's actually a rather resilient weed-like growth that can withstand repressions ranging from the New Deal/Great Society to the Japanese Internments/Red Scares without suffering too much permanent damage. That doesn't mean that we should let our guards down when such repressive movements rise up, rather that we might seek to understand them as understandable and inevitable reactions to unusual circumstances. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 27, 2002 9:06 AM