The last three dictatorships of Western Europe ended in the second half of the 20th century - the regimes of Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal and the "black colonels" in Greece. Their citizens ultimately preferred a democratic regime to an authoritarian one. In his book, political researcher and journalist Alexander Baunov talks about how the dictatorships of these three countries tried to prolong their existence and ended, about the differences and similarities of this transition as a result of the peaceful transformation in Spain, the revolutionary events in Portugal and the military adventure in Greece, and about people , thanks to or in spite of which this transition took place.

Opponents of autocracies often give their own answer to the question of why authoritarian regimes manage to survive for a long time: because they are based on fear and force. Supporters of authoritarianism as a form of government respond in their own way: long-term regimes of personal power are held together by the power of people's love.

Time not only clarifies, but also obscures the course of events. It is necessary to distinguish the event from the myth about it.

This book can be read as a documentary about how the two longest dictatorships in Europe, each lasting 40 years, failed. To complete the picture, I am writing about their later and less durable imitator - the Orthodox dictatorship of the "black colonels" in Greece.

For whom

For those who are interested in the current political agenda and recent events past.

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