Nekrasova T.A. Factors in the democratic transition of the Weimar republic

Abstract: This article presents as a methodological experiment an analysis of the first German democracy – the Weimar republic – from the point of view of the theory of democratic transition (transitology). This is not a new theoretical approach for Western historiography, but it has only recently been taken up by Russian scholars and can be considered as a separate methodological direction, taking into account the criticism it has received during its development (from the beginning of the 1970s). The criteria for the transition from authoritarianism to democracy proposed by the two founders of the theory – Walt W. Rostow and Dankwart Rustow – have rarely been applied on the history of Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, although the November revolution was in fact one of the forms of democratic transition and brought about the formation of a democratic government. While the Weimar republic basically did not have a single of the necessary preconditions for the establishment of a democratic government proposed by transitology as a criteria of “transition”, nonetheless the accepted historiographical paradigm of the Weimar epoch accepts it as the first German democracy, though not as long-lasting and successful as the traditionally paralleled with it history of the second German democracy – the Federal Republic of Germany. The theory of democratic transition has its limitations and advantages, and gives a new look at Germany’s primary issue of the 20th century that of the glide between authoritarianism and democracy.

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