Professor Forsyth provides an important new interpretation of the crisis of democracy in Italy after World War I. He argues that liberal governments after 1918 failed to balance the conflicting claims of great power conflicts, social welfare, economic growth, and macroeconomic stability in a harsh economic environment. Postwar liberal leaders put stability ahead of the redistributive social policies that would have been necessary to secure broad electoral support: this failure led to parliamentary deadlock and Mussolini's seizure of power.