Sp. Ch26 prt 2 758-73 Retreat from Democracy: The Authoritarian and Totalitarian States I. The apparent triumph of liberal democracy in 1919 proved extremely short-lived. By 1939, only 2 major states (France and Great Britain) and several minor ones (Low Countries, the Scandinavian states, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia) remained democratic. A. Italy and Germany had succumbed to fascism, while the Soviet Union, under Stalin, had moved toward a repressive totalitarian state. B. A host of other European states, especially in eastern Europe, adopted authoritarian structures of various kinds. II. The dictatorial regimes b/w the wars assumed both old and new forms. A. The totalitarian regimes, whose best examples can be found in Stalinist Russia and