TY - BOOK AU - Bermeo,Nancy G. TI - Ordinary People in Extraordinary Times: The Citizenry and the Breakdown of Democracy SN - 9780691214139 AV - JC337 .B47 2003eb U1 - 306.2 22 PY - 2020///] CY - Princeton, NJ : PB - Princeton University Press, KW - Allegiance KW - Authoritarianism KW - Civil society KW - Crises KW - Democracy KW - Elite (Social sciences) KW - Government, Resistance to KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General KW - bisacsh KW - Allende, Salvador KW - Altamirano, Carlos KW - Balbín, Ricardo KW - Betancourt, Rómulo KW - Bordaberry, Juan KW - CGT (Argentina) KW - Collier, David KW - Collier, Ruth KW - Cámpora, Héctor KW - Di Tella, Torcuato KW - Diamond, Larry KW - Frei government (Chile) KW - González, Luis KW - Goulart, João KW - Italy, interwar KW - James, Daniel KW - Kasekamp, Andres KW - Kubitschek, Juscelino KW - Linz, Juan KW - López Rega KW - Mainwaring, Scott KW - Metaxas, General KW - Nazi Party (Germany) KW - Pacheco Areco, Jorge KW - Perón, Juan KW - Sartori, Giovanni KW - Scully, Timothy KW - Tomic, Radomiro KW - emigration, from Uruguay KW - heroism KW - party systems N1 - Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; LIST OF FIGURES --; LIST OF TABLES --; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --; PART I: OUR LITERATURE AND INTERWAR EUROPE --; Introduction --; 1. Heroes or Villains? Images of Citizens and Civil Society in the Literature on Democracy --; 2. Ordinary People and the Breakdown of Democracy in Interwar Europe --; PART II: SOUTH AMERICA AND OUR LITERATURE REVISED --; 3. The Reluctant Coup in Brazil --; 4. The Slow-Motion Coup in Uruguay --; 5. The Tragedy of Democracy in Chile --; 6. The Violent Death of Democracy in Argentina --; 7. Polarization and the Ignorance of Elites --; INDEX; restricted access N2 - For generations, influential thinkers--often citing the tragic polarization that took place during Germany's Great Depression--have suspected that people's loyalty to democratic institutions erodes under pressure and that citizens gravitate toward antidemocratic extremes in times of political and economic crisis. But do people really defect from democracy when times get tough? Do ordinary people play a leading role in the collapse of popular government? Based on extensive research, this book overturns the common wisdom. It shows that the German experience was exceptional, that people's affinity for particular political positions are surprisingly stable, and that what is often labeled polarization is the result not of vote switching but of such factors as expansion of the franchise, elite defections, and the mobilization of new voters. Democratic collapses are caused less by changes in popular preferences than by the actions of political elites who polarize themselves and mistake the actions of a few for the preferences of the many. These conclusions are drawn from the study of twenty cases, including every democracy that collapsed in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution in interwar Europe, every South American democracy that fell to the Right after the Cuban Revolution, and three democracies that avoided breakdown despite serious economic and political challenges. Unique in its historical and regional scope, this book offers unsettling but important lessons about civil society and regime change--and about the paths to democratic consolidation today UR - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691214139?locatt=mode:legacy UR - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780691214139 UR - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780691214139.jpg ER -