International Center University of Florida

Featuring Dr. David Art, Tufts University

This talk challenges the widespread view that Western Europe had mostly democratized on the eve of WWI. It also explores how scholars, politicians, and ordinary citizens came to embrace democratic narratives of political development that obscured long histories of competitive oligarchy and competitive authoritarianism. The central case study is the United Kingdom, with the goal of considering comparative questions—-including comparisons with the contemporary United States– during the discussion period.