Democratization

Essays on Ethnics and Politics
Ed. by David Potter, David Goldblatt and Margaret Kiloh

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

In 1760 no polity in the world was democratic in any way we wouldnow recognize. In 1995 there were democratic states on everycontinent and in every region. The struggle to create, sustain, andentrench democratic political systems is one of the centralnarratives of modernity. Democratization is the firsttextbook comprehensively to survey, explore and engage with thisstory.

In Part I, the introduction to the book as a whole, an overviewand elaboration is offered of the key explanatory models ofdemocratization; this section also refines the description of aregime s democratic status and explores the models and strategiesof comparative analysis used in the book. While each of thesubsequent twenty chapters can stand on their own, they have allbeen framed by a shared engagement with and discussion of thedynamics of democratization set out here.

Part II surveys the course of democratization in the West from1760 to 1989, examining both the early breakthroughs of the Frenchand American Revolutions and the inter-war crisis of Europeandemocracy. The post-war era is covered by discussions of the impactof World War II, the democratic revolutions in Southern Europe andthe struggle of the American Civil Rights movement.

Part III examines the experience of Latin America and Asia. TheLatin American case is covered in two chapters stretching from the1930 s to the 1990 s. In the Asia section the comparativetrajectories of Asia s two giants - China and India - arecontrasted 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 Africaand the Middle East is interrogated. Surveys of the Middle East andsub-Saharan Africa are complemented by individual case studies(Israel-Palestine and South Africa) and a synoptic examination ofthe relationship between Islamic culture, society anddemocracy.

In Part V, the democratic revolutions of 1989 and theiraftermath are examined in chapters on Eastern Europe and Russia.The enmeshment of these processes of democratization withnationalist struggles are highlighted in a study of formerCzechoslovakia and Yugoslavia while the particular course of theremaining socialist states is examined in a chapter onVietnam.

Finally, the conclusion both reviews the regional variations indemocratization and considers the pressing question of howdemocracies once created can be sustained.

Democratization will provide students and teachers withan invaluable and engaging resource for examining the complex fateof democratic politics across the world.

Produktdetails

• Democracy, From Classical Times to the Present Vol.2
• Verlag: Blackwell Publishers
• 1997.
• Seitenzahl: 560
• Erscheinungstermin: 21. April 1997
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 247mm x 172mm x 34mm
• Gewicht: 967g
• ISBN-13: 9780745618159
• ISBN-10: 0745618154
• Artikelnr.: 14779330

Autorenporträt

David Stone Potter is the Francis W. Kelsey Collegiate Professor of Greek and Roman History and the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, Professor of Greek and Latin in Ancient History at The University of Michigan. David Goldblatt was a South African photographer noted for his portrayal of South Africa during the period of apartheid and more recently that country's landscapes. He described himself as a self-appointed observer and critic of the society into which I was born. He had numerous publications to his name.

Rezensionen

"The first comprehensive textbook to address this central politicalphenomenon." The Times Higher Education Supplement
"A fine array of specialist contributors ... especially welcometo see these issues presented clearly and without jargon." Commonwealth and Comparative Politics

"A significant contribution to the academic study of the causesand process of democratization ... the contributing authors achievea high degree of clarity without sacrificing theoretical andanalytical depth." Democratization