Rethinking Backsliding in Interwar Europe: Political Development in the United Kingdom and Germany

Discussions of democratization have increasingly turned to the question of backsliding. As democratic experiments spread around the world, the study of backsliding has become perhaps more important than even transition as a focus of analysis. However, the notion of backsliding brings with it problematic temporalities that obscure the dynamics of political change and treat contradictions as a move backward. This paper draws on recent advances in the study of historical democratization to offer an alternative reading of so-called backsliding that shows contradictions to be a necessary part of the forward movement of political development both towards and away from democracy, rather than a step backward along a linear path. I offer analysis of the dynamics of political change in Interwar Europe, focusing in particular on the United Kingdom and Germany to illustrate the complex institutional collage that resulted from this phase of political development. This reveals the shortcomings of backsliding as a conceptual tool and points to the utility of a shift in our understanding of democratic development.