Even the Dreyfusards’ champion lost faith in democracy by the 1920s

Evidence

That even Clemenceau no longer believed in it toward the end of his life is shown clearly by the remark quoted in René Benjamin, Clémenceau dans la retraite, Paris, 1930, p. 249: “Hope? Impossible! How can I go on hoping when I no longer believe in that which roused me, namely, democracy?” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 2096

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: this late-life despair from Clemenceau surfaces a theme about interwar disillusionment with parliamentary democracy prefiguring totalitarian appeal.