Democratic Transition And Consolidation In Southern Europe Latin America And Southeast Asia

The breakdown of authoritarian regimes in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the mid-70s was the beginning of a new cycle of democratization at the world scale. The 1980s have seen the emergence of formal, constitutional democracies in many countries, especially in Latin America and Southeast Asia. This book analyses in a comparative perspective the causes, the modalities and the prospects of these political changes in three regions: Southern Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

A distinguished group of scholars examine recent transitions to democracy and the prospects for democratic stability in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Portugal, Spain and Uruguay. They also assess the role of elites in the longer-established democratic regimes in Columbia, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico and Venezuela. The authors conclude that in independent states with long records of political instability and authoritarian rule, democratic consolidation requires the achievement of elite 'consensual unity' - that is, agreement among all politically important elites on the worth of existing democratic institutions and respect for democratic rules-of-the-game, coupled with increased 'structural integration' among those elites. Two processes by which consensual unity can be established are explored - elite settlement, the negotiating of compromises on basic disagreements, and elite convergence, a more subtle series of tactical decisions by rival elites which have cumulative effect, over perhaps a generation.

Since their classic volume The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes was published in 1978, Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan have increasingly focused on the questions of how, in the modern world, nondemocratic regimes can be eroded and democratic regimes crafted. In Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, they break new ground in numerous areas. They reconceptualize the major types of modern nondemocratic regimes and point out for each type the available paths to democratic transition and the tasks of democratic consolidation. They argue that, although "nation-state" and "democracy" often have conflicting logics, multiple and complementary political identities are feasible under a common roof of state-guaranteed rights. They also illustrate how, without an effective state, there can be neither effective citizenship nor successful privatization. Further, they provide criteria and evidence for politicians and scholars alike to distinguish between democratic consolidation and pseudo-democratization, and they present conceptually driven survey data for the fourteen countries studied. Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation contains the first systematic comparative analysis of the process of democratic consolidation in southern Europe and the southern cone of South America, and it is the first book to ground post-Communist Europe within the literature of comparative politics and democratic theory. "This is an important volume by two major scholars on a central topic -- one of broad interest to people in comparative politics, to those interested in democracy, and to regional specialists on Southern Latin America and on Central and Eastern Europe. The book will unquestionably be a major contribution to the literature on constructing democratic governance." -- Abraham F. Lowenthal, University of Southern California

Democratic transitions have occurred in many countries in various regions across the globe, such as Southern Europe, Latin America, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and these nations have undergone simuntaneously political, economic and social transformations. Yet, the patterns and characteristics of transitions have varied significantly, and different modes of transition have resulted in different outcomes. This book offers cross-national comparisons of democratic transition since the turn of the twentieth century and asks what makes democracies succeed or fail. In doing so it explores the influence the mode of transition has on the longevity or durability of the democracy, by theoretically examining and quantitatively testing this relationship. The authors argue that the mode of transition directly impacts the success and failure of democracy, and suggest that cooperative transitions, where opposition groups work together with incumbent elites to peacefully transition the state, result in democracies that last longer and are associated with higher measures of democratic quality. Based on a cross-national dataset of all democratic transitioning states since 1900, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international politics, comparative politics and democracy, and democratization studies.

This wide-ranging overview of the processes of democratization in post-Communist Europe, places the transitions in East-Central Europe within a broad European and global context. The authors begin with a introduction to the concept and theories of democracy and then examine the emerging politics of the new democracies to set the post-Communist transitions in longer-term comparative perspective with earlier and existing processes of democratization in Southern Europe, Latin America, and East and Southeast Asia. Finally the politics of EU accession are introduced to place the transitions within the wider context of European integration. Concluding with a summary of recent critiques of modern democracy and looking toward future theories, this text provides a comprehensive introduction to what will remain the key contemporary issue for all students of political science.

Problems of democratization, its successes, failures and future prospects, belong to the most pressing concerns of our times. Empirical democratic theory has received many new impulses since the last ""wave"" of democratization in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast and East Asia. In this volume the ""state of the art"" in this respect is discussed by leading international experts in this field including Laurence Whitehead, Gerardo Munck, Axel Hadenius and Juan Linz. From the contents: Some significant recent developments in the field of Democratization Concepts, measurements and sub-types in Democratization Research Agendas, findings, challenges Successes and failures of the new democracies Some thoughts on the victory and future of democracy

A global examination that includes nations in Latin America, Asia, Russia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, Pathways to Democracy investigates the implications of the various paths that nations take to democracy and the political and economic programs needed to stabilize new democracies. From military to authoritarian to communist oligarchies, the essays reveal that democratic transitions were instigated by divisions within the ruling elite, challenges came from groups and interests outside the elite, and poor economic performance followed in its wake. An extensive look at what the United States can do through its foreign policy to promote and invest in democratization is included. An introduction to democratization that is comprehensive and global in scope. Includes comprehensive focus on U.S. foreign policy