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Cover image of Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation
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Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation

Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe

Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan

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Since their classic volume The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes was published in 1978, Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan have increasingly focused on the questions of how, in the modern world, nondemocratic regimes can be eroded and democratic regimes crafted. In Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, they break new ground in numerous areas. They reconceptualize the major types of modern nondemocratic regimes and point out for each type the available paths to democratic transition and the tasks of democratic consolidation. They argue that, although "nation-state" and "democracy"...

Since their classic volume The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes was published in 1978, Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan have increasingly focused on the questions of how, in the modern world, nondemocratic regimes can be eroded and democratic regimes crafted. In Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, they break new ground in numerous areas. They reconceptualize the major types of modern nondemocratic regimes and point out for each type the available paths to democratic transition and the tasks of democratic consolidation. They argue that, although "nation-state" and "democracy" often have conflicting logics, multiple and complementary political identities are feasible under a common roof of state-guaranteed rights. They also illustrate how, without an effective state, there can be neither effective citizenship nor successful privatization. Further, they provide criteria and evidence for politicians and scholars alike to distinguish between democratic consolidation and pseudo-democratization, and they present conceptually driven survey data for the fourteen countries studied.

Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation contains the first systematic comparative analysis of the process of democratic consolidation in southern Europe and the southern cone of South America, and it is the first book to ground post-Communist Europe within the literature of comparative politics and democratic theory.

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Reviews

This is an important volume by two major scholars on a central topic—one of broad interest to people in comparative politics, to those interested in democracy, and to regional specialists on Southern Latin America and on Central and Eastern Europe. The book will unquestionably be a major contribution to the literature on constructing democratic governance.

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Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x
9.25
Pages
504
ISBN
9780801851582
Table of Contents

List of Figures, Tables, and Exhibits
Preface and Acknowledgments
Part I: Theoretical Overview
Chapter 1. Democracy and its Arenas
Chapter 2. "Stateness," Nationalism, and Democratization
Chapter 3

List of Figures, Tables, and Exhibits
Preface and Acknowledgments
Part I: Theoretical Overview
Chapter 1. Democracy and its Arenas
Chapter 2. "Stateness," Nationalism, and Democratization
Chapter 3. Modern Nondemocratic Regimes
Chapter 4. The Implications of Prior Regime Type for Transition Paths and Consolidation Tasks
Chapter 5. Actors and Contexts
Part II: Southern Europe: Completed Consolidations
Chapter 6. The Paradigmatic Case of Reforma Pactada–Ruptura Pactada: Spain
Chapter 7. From Interim Government to Simultaneous Transition and Consolidation: Portugal
Chapter 8. Crisis of a Nonhierarchical Military Regime: Greece
Chapter 9. Southern Europe: Concluding Reflections
Part III: South America: Constrained Transitions
Chapter 10. A Risk-Prone Consolidated Democracy: Uruguay
Chapter 11. Crises of Efficacy, Legitimacy, and Democratic State "Presence": Brazil
Chapter 12. From an Impossible to a Possible Democratic Game: Argentina
Chapter 13. Incomplete Transition/Near Consolidation? Chile
Chapter 14. South America: Concluding Reflections
Part IV: Post-Communist Europe: The Most Complex Paths and Tasks
Chapter 15. Post-Communism's Prehistories
Chapter 16. Authoritarian Communism, Ethical Civil Society, and Ambivalent Political Society: Poland
Chapter 17. Varieties of Post-Totalitarian Regimes: Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria
Chapter 18. The Effects of Totalitarianism-cum-Sultanism on Democratic Transition: Romania
Chapter 19. The Problems of "Stateness" and Transitions: The USSR and Russia
Chapter 20. When Democracy and the Nation-State Are Conflicting Logics: Estonia and Latvia
Chapter 21. Post-Communist Europe: Concluding Comparative Reflections
Index

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

Juan J. Linz

Juan J. Linz is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political and Social Science at Yale University. In addition to the works coauthored and coedited with Professor Stepan, Professor Linz has published works on democracy, democratization, and comparative politics, including Sultanistic Regimes, also published by Johns Hopkins.
Featured Contributor

Alfred Stepan

Alfred Stepan is the Wallace Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University. His books include Democracies in Danger, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation, and The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, all also published by Johns Hopkins, the last two with Juan J. Linz.