January 1, 1970

By the early 1930s, democracy – and voting rights for men, if not women – was becoming established.  But with the rise of fascism and communism, democracy was almost extinguished in the interwar period, a point made very powerfully by Piers Brendon in his book, The Dark Valley.

Against the powerful forces of dictatorships, democracy failed to take hold in Germany or Russia. It was extinguished in Italy and France and strangled at birth in Spain.

The victory of Churchill and Roosevelt, in the Second World War, was not only a victory over Nazism.  It ensured democracy’s survival and also its dominance in the post-war world.