I think maybe I was thinking of 'the democracy' as a by-word for 'modern european state'. On second thought, this isn't all that reasonable. I think the modern

I think maybe I was thinking of 'the democracy' as a by-word for 'modern european state'. On second thought, this isn't all that reasonable. I think the modern european state is nationalist first, liberal second, and democratic (usually) as a distant third - that is, in order of how likely any characteristic is to break down under pressure. It feels to me if you look at the trajectory from the start of the french revolution to the modern european state, even in periods of reaction, the arrow doesn't really turn much. Reactionaries usually see the advantages of nationalism, bourgeois the advantages of liberalism, and workers the advantages of democracy - and all of the three trends get reversed at points, but if you sum them, then it's a pretty steady gain. For instance, while the dissolution of the Frankfurt parliment was a blow against democracy, I think it probably pushed nationlism forward by putting so much power in Prussian hands. So I'd credit the French Revolution with spawning and intensively testing the triad of political views that have ended up being totally dominant in Europe - you're right that this triad is not identical with democracy, but I think it is identical with what we generally call democracy in Europe today.