How do countries manage to establish democracy after revolution, totalitarianism or defeat in war? What can the comparative study of France, Germany and Russia tell about paths to democracy? Rosemary H. T. O'Kane investigates paths to democracy through the comparative historical analysis of three countries - France, Germany and Russia - whose histories are intertwined in war and peace and whose paths have been broken by one or both of revolution and totalitarianism. The book is divided into five parts. Part one discusses theories and method, arguing for the importance of theories from the discipline of politics as well as those from historical sociology. Parts two, three and four focus on the principal case studies while part five concludes that democracy is not only achieved through a struggle against dictatorship, pluralist democracy is also achieved through a struggle against ideas, institutions and supporters of kinds of democracy that are not modern How and why countries become democracies remain intriguing questions. This innovative volume provides a theoretically informed comparative investigation of the links between revolutions, totalitarianism and democracy. It will appeal to those interested in the relationship between history and democracy and the implications for the understanding of democracy today.