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The history of the modern state in Europe is first of all about authority, not democracy. The majority of European states did not become stable democracies until after 1945, and some are still in the process of securing free elections between competing political parties. This paper reviews four different paths to democracy taken by the contemporary states of Europe. Gradual evolution, the British and Scandinavia course, is atypical. Abrupt changes have taken three forms: following military defeat and occupation (e.g. Germany); following a series of trial and error moves between authoritarian and democratic regimes (e.g. Spain); and in the wake of the double default of Soviet authority in Eastern Europe. The concluding section considers potential changes in the forseeable involving changes within regimes and changes in relationships between the states of Europe.
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