Debates on Democratization

by Diamond, Larry Jay; Plattner, Marc F.; Costopoulos, Philip J.

• ISBN13: 9780801897771
• ISBN10: 0801897777
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-20
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr

Summary

For more than twenty years, the Journal of Democracy has been a leading voice in the conversation between scholars and practitioners about government by consent and its place in the contemporary world.If democracy means anything, it means robust debates. Over the years, the pages of the Journal have certainly seen their share of lively and illuminating scholarly disagreements. As a service to students and teachers who wish to deepen their understanding of the questions and controversies that surround contemporary democratization, the Journal has now brought together a series of exchanges on the topic.Debates on Democratization explores the issues of democratic consolidation, the reality of the transition paradigm, the advisability of attempting to "sequence" elections and other liberal-democratic reforms, the nature and prospects of the "color revolutions" in the former Eastern Bloc, and the relative merits of presidentialism and its alternatives from the point of view of democratic governance and stability.The volume is filled with insightful, thought-provoking arguments by leading thinkers in the field. Graduate and undergraduate students alike will find it a useful guide to key issues facing emerging democracies today.

Author Biography

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where he also directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy, where he directs the International Forum for Democratic Studies. They serve as coeditors of the Journal of Democracy. Philip J. Costopoulos is executive editor of the Journal of Democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction	p. xi
Democratic Consolidation
Toward Consolidated Democracies	p. 3
Illusions About Consolidation	p. 23
O'Donnell's "Illusions": A Rejoinder	p. 41
Illusions and Conceptual Flaws	p. 50
What Is Democratic Consolidation?	p. 59
The Transition Paradigm
The End of the Transition Paradigm	p. 77
In Partial Defense of an Evanescent "Paradigm"	p. 94
The Democratic Path	p. 101
Retaining the Human Dimension	p. 108
Tilting at Straw Men	p. 114
A Reply to My Critics	p. 121
Sequencing
The "Sequencing" Fallacy	p. 129
How Democracies Emerge	p. 145
The Sequencing "Fallacy"	p. 159
Liberalism versus State-Building	p. 164
The Vain Hope for "Correct" Timing	p. 168
Misunderstanding Gradualism	p. 172
The Color Revolutions
Transitions from Postcommunism	p. 179
Favorable Conditions and Electoral Revolutions	p. 194
The Real Causes of the Color Revolutions	p. 208
Getting Real About "Real Causes"	p. 223
An Interrelated Wave	p. 228
Popular Autocrats	p. 232
Necessary Distinctions	p. 236
What Are We Trying to Explain?	p. 240
A Reply to My Critics	p. 244
Presidentalism
The Perils of Presidentialism	p. 255
Comparing Democratic Systems	p. 273
The Centrality of Political Culture	p. 280
The Virtues of Parliamentarism	p. 284
Variations on a Theme	p. 292
Index	p. 307
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