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“Double transformations:” nation formation and democratization in interwar East Central Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Heidi Hein-Kircher Open the ORCID record for Heidi Hein-Kircher [Opens in a new window]  and
Steffen Kailitz Open the ORCID record for Steffen Kailitz [Opens in a new window]
Heidi Hein-Kircher*
Affiliation:
a Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, Institute of the Leibniz Association, Marburg, Germany
Steffen Kailitz
Affiliation:
bHannah-Arendt-Institute for Totalitarianism Studies, Technical University of Dresden, Dresden, Germany
*
* Corresponding author. Email: heidi.hein-kircher@herder-institut.de
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Abstract

Following the collapse of empires and the subsequent founding of self-determined nation-states, East Central Europe experienced a turning point after World War I. The new states had to transform themselves from branches of a multi-ethnic empire to independent nation-states, as well as from a system of monarchy to democracy at the same time. We argue that one cannot really understand why democracy failed in almost all East Central European states after World War I if one does not take into account the extreme challenges of this “double transformation” consisting of the interactions of the two tightly interwoven processes of nation formation and democratization. Therefore, we deem it necessary to develop a broader research program that addresses the complex interlacement of these two fundamental transformations of politics and society.

Keywords

nation formationdemocratizationEast Central Europe
Type
Research Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 46 , Issue 5: Special Section: Between the wars , September 2018 , pp. 745 - 758
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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