The Making and Unmaking of Democracy: Lessons from History and World Politics

by Rabb,Theodore K.

• ISBN13: 9780415933810
• ISBN10: 0415933811
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2002-11-15
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The promotion of democracy is an urgent issue for the citizens of every country. But how does democracy spread, and what can be done to sustain it? Under what conditions is democracy undermined? In The Making and Unmaking of Democracy, eminent authorities from the fields of political science and history discuss political thought and practice from ancient Athens to the contemporary Middle East in order to answer these questions, and to develop and historical and geographical outline of the development of democracy. Throughout their debate, the contributors identify several key factors by which to assess democratic institutions wherever and whenever they arise: the influence of past regimes, international political pressure, and economic conditions. What emerges for the reader of this broad and remarkable collection of new essays is a heightened level of understanding of the spectrum of possibilities at work in democratic regimes -- a knowledge that is essential for the promotion of democracy and, further, to an understanding of the meaning of globalization. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Theodore K. Rabb is a Professor of History at Princeton University. A historian of early modern Europe, he is the founder and co-editor of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History and a regular contributor to the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement Ezra N. Suleiman is IBM Professor of International Studies and Founding Director of the European Studies Center at Princeton University

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
Theodore K. Rabb
Ezra N. Suleiman
PRE-MODERN EUROPE
Conditions for Athenian Democracy	2	(21)
Josiah Ober
Republic and Democracy: On Early Modern Origins of Democratic Theory	23	(18)
Maurizio Viroli
Institutions and Ideas: Planting the Roots of Democracy in Early Modern Europe	41	(18)
Theodore K. Rabb
A Response to Ober, Viroli, and Rabb	59	(7)
George Kateb
MODERN EUROPE
Hope, Disappointment, and Self-Restraint: Reflections on the Democratic Experiment	66	(23)
Anne Sa'adah
Democracy in Spain: Two Paradigms	89	(20)
Edward Malefakis
Potemkin Democracy	109	(25)
Stephen Holmes
Dilemmas of Democracy in the European Union	134	(26)
Ezra N. Suleiman
ASIA, AFRICA, AND THE MIDDLE EAST
Recasting the Primacy of Politics in Israeli Democracy	160	(25)
Asher Arian
Prospects for Democracy in Tropical Africa	185	(21)
Robert L. Tignor
The Nature of South African Democracy: Political Dominance and Economic Inequality	206	(19)
Jeffrey Herbst
Democracy in Turkey	225	(24)
Bernard Lewis
East Asian Democratic Transitions	249	(21)
Kent E. Calder
A Response to Arian, Tignor, and Herbst	270	(10)
Irving Leonard Markovitz
LATIN AMERICA
Capitalism and Democracy in South America	280	(22)
Jeremy Adelman
Democratic Pathways: Crossroads, Detours, and Dead Ends in Central America	302	(26)
Deborah J. Yashar
UNITED STATES
The Possibilities for Democracy in America	328	(23)
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Race, Ethnicity, and American Democracy: An (Unguarded) Optimistic View	351	(6)
Sean Wilentz
Conclusion	357	(2)
Theodore K. Rabb
Ezra N. Suleiman
Index	359