Defending Democracy: Reactions to Extremism in Interwar Europe Giovanni Capoccia A comprehensive and thoughtful historical analysis of the democracies of interwar Europe, Defending Democracy provides a unique perspective on the many lessons to be learned from their success and failures. With an exclusively empirical investigative approach, Capoccia develops a methodology for analyzing contemporary democracies – such as Algeria, Turkey, Israel, and others – where similar political conditions are present. Giovanni Capoccia is a professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Oxford.