ABSTRACT
In the aftermath of the Second World War, and in the midst of the prosperous Pax Americana of the post-war era, a considerable literature extolling the virtues of political democracy has developed, especially in the United States. To those who, like the author, respect the ideals of human liberty, individual dignity, and the rule of law, the moral claims of democracy are both understandable and admirable. The many triumphs of Adolf Hitler from the 1920s to the 1940s undermined the “democratic myth” in two important respects. They demonstrated the relative ineffectiveness of democracies in a variety of crisis situations. Through the vices of myopic self-indulgence and domestic discord, the democracies of the world allowed Hitler to achieve enormous power in Germany and in Europe by the end of the 1930s. Myth has obscured reality. It has clouded the memory of the past and the perspective on the present and the future.
