Democracy in Developing Countries: Volume 3, Asia
  • 1989/489 pages

Democracy in Developing Countries:

Volume 3, Asia

Larry Diamond, Juan Linz, and Seymour Martin Lipset, editors
Paperback: $29.95
ISBN: 978-1-55587-042-3
In Volume 3 of the four-volume Democracy in Developing Countries, the authors follow a common analytical framework to trace the experiences with democratic and authoritarian rule and assess the underlying causes of democratic success and failure in ten Asian countries. Volumes 2 and 4 of the set cover Africa and Latin America. In Volume 1, Professors Diamond, Linz, and Lipset weigh the evidence from these case studies together with a wealth of other theoretical and comparative literature to present a comprehensive theory of the social, cultural, economic, and political factors that foster stable democracy. Eschewing reductionist and monocausal interpretations, they emphasize the interplay between constitutional and party structure, ethnic conflict, socioeconomic change, international constraints, political values and beliefs, and the behaviors, choices, and policies of political leaders. Both the case studies and the theoretical conclusions draw new attention to the relationship between state and society and the autonomy and vitality of social interest groups as important determinants of the democratic prospect.
Larry Diamond, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution, has written numerous articles on Nigerian political history and politics. The late Juan J. Linz was Sterling Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University. His work on authoritarianism, the breakdown of democratic regimes, and transitions to democracy had a wide-ranging impact not only on scholarship, but also in the world of politics. Seymour Martin Lipset holds the Hazel Chair of Public Policy at George Mason University.