Postwar - Destabilizing 70s and Revisionist Hindsight

Judt’s reluctance to state an overarching theme for his history of postwar Europe, preferring to be “the fox that knows many things” than “the hedgehog that knows one big thing,” makes his portrayal of Europe much more convincing and accurate. By backing away from the wish to create a thematic narrative or a teleological trend, he protects himself from a biased view of the past that would occur by looking back on these events with a modern lens and modern hindsight.

Judt’s nonbiased journey through postwar Europe confirms and expands upon the thoughts of Larry Diamond about hybrid regimes and, more specifically, transitology. As Judt gives the impression, Europe was not destined to end up where it is currently: free, integrated, democratic, prosperous, etc. There were serious threats to the free democratic system in Europe in the 70s such as the IRA, ETA, the Red Brigades, and other radical forces. These groups actively worked to bring down established democratic governments.

These destabilization attempts seem to expand Diamond’s ideas of transitology: not only should we look at contemporary hybrid regimes in Latin America and the former Communist world which did not make the “transition” to democracy as examples, but also in Europe in the 1970s where there were very real concerns that strong democracies could slip back into authoritarian regimes. In the example of Greece, in less than a decade the country went from constitutional monarchy to military dictatorship to republic! The success of democracy in Europe was not so clear cut as history in hindsight would portray and transitology is even less teleological than the criticism says.

Another example of the contemporary lens skewing the “progress” of Europe is the breaking down of the Bretton Woods System and oil embargo of the 70s. At the time then, it seemed the end of the economic order as then-currently envisioned. Now in hindsight it is viewed as just a slight diversion or course correction on the onward march towards free trade and an integrated global economy.