With the increasing use of elections as a tool for peacebuilding after civil war, the question of why some postconflict elections succeed and others fail is a crucial one. Tackling this question, Terrence Lyons finds the answer in the internal political dynamics that occur between the cease-fire and the voting. Lyons shows that the promise of elections can provide the incentive for the    More >

What explains the enduring rule of authoritarian regimes in the Arab world? Nicola Pratt offers an innovative approach to this recurring question, shedding light on the failure of democratization by examining both the broad dynamics of authoritarianism in the region and the particular role of civil society. Pratt appraises the part that civil society actors played in the normalization of    More >

Why is there so much discontent with democracy across Latin America? Are regimes being judged by unrealistic standards of success—or is there legitimate cause for criticism in light of  widespread failures to deliver either transparency or effective public policies? Addressing these questions across a variety of dimensions, the authors explore the diverse ways in which the specific    More >

Moving beyond Cold War rhetoric and stereotypical views of Third World Marxism, the authors convincingly argue that the democratic tradition and practice that was emerging in socialist Nicaragua could well serve as a model for other Third World states. They analyze concepts of democracy and the ideology of the FSLN and show that the Sandinista movement is not in any way stock Marxist-Leninism.    More >

Errol Henderson critically examines what has been called the closest thing to an empirical law in world politics, the concept of the democratic peace.   Henderson tests two versions of the democratic peace proposition (DPP)—that democracies rarely if ever fight one another, and that democracies are more peaceful in general than nondemocracies—using exactly the same data and    More >

Democracy is in crisis. After the hope engendered by the Third Wave, democracies around the world are beleaguered with threats from multiple sources. What are these threats? Where did they come from? And how can the challenges to democratic governance best be overcome? Grappling with these questions, Roland Rich interprets the danger signs that abound in the United States and Europe, in Asia    More >

In Volume 2 of the multi-volume Democracy in Developing Countries, the authors follow a common analytical framework to trace the experiences with democratic and authoritarian rule in six African countries and assess the underlying causes of democratic success and failure. Volumes 3 and 4 of the set cover Asia and Latin America in the same fashion.    More >

Extensively revised since the first edition was published in 1989, this analytically balanced and empirically rich volume thoroughly examines the historical, cultural, social, economic, political, and international factors that affect both the prospects for and the nature of political democracy in Latin America. The book reflects improvements in democratic trends in some countries, but also the    More >

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    More >

Prominent scholars explore in this work the meaning of democracy and, looking at factors internal and external to the region, find clues as to why democracy has in the past failed in many Latin American countries and why it spread in the last decade of the1980s.    More >