DemocratizationISBN: 978-0-7456-1815-9
Paperback
560 pages
April 1997, Polity
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In Part I, the introduction to the book as a whole, an overview
and elaboration is offered of the key explanatory models of
democratization; this section also refines the description of a
regime's democratic status and explores the models and strategies
of comparative analysis used in the book. While each of the
subsequent twenty chapters can stand on their own, they have all
been framed by a shared engagement with and discussion of the
dynamics of democratization set out here.
Part II surveys the course of democratization in the West from
1760 to 1989, examining both the early breakthroughs of the French
and American Revolutions and the inter-war crisis of European
democracy. The post-war era is covered by discussions of the impact
of World War II, the democratic revolutions in Southern Europe and
the struggle of the American Civil Rights movement.
Part III examines the experience of Latin America and Asia. The
Latin American case is covered in two chapters stretching from the
1930's to the 1990's. In the Asia section the comparative
trajectories of Asia's two giants - China and India - are
contrasted with the experience of East Asia's original tigers
(Taiwan and South Korea) and more recent industrializing states
(Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia).
In Part IV the relative weakness of democratization in Africa
and the Middle East is interrogated. Surveys of the Middle East and
sub-Saharan Africa are complemented by individual case studies
(Israel-Palestine and South Africa) and a synoptic examination of
the relationship between Islamic culture, society and
democracy.
In Part V, the democratic revolutions of 1989 and their
aftermath are examined in chapters on Eastern Europe and Russia.
The enmeshment of these processes of democratization with
nationalist struggles are highlighted in a study of former
Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia while the particular course of the
remaining socialist states is examined in a chapter on
Vietnam.
Finally, the conclusion both reviews the regional variations in
democratization and considers the pressing question of how
democracies once created can be sustained.
Democratization will provide students and teachers with an invaluable and engaging resource for examining the complex fate of democratic politics across the world.