To craft democracies : an essay on democratic transitions
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
To craft democracies : an essay on democratic transitions
University of California Press, c1990
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [201]-241) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
ISBN 9780520072138
Description
Is democracy a hot-house plant? Is it difficult to transplant it into new soil? The fall of so many dictatorships in the last few years first in Southern Europe, then in Latin America, now in Eastern Europe opens new, more optimistic perspectives on democratic development. The crises of dictatorships and the search for a new political order offer fertile ground for an examination of how best to effect democratic transitions.
By focusing on the objective conditions that make democracy probable, sociological and historical theories of democracy often lose sight of what is possible. Here Giuseppe Di Palma instead explores those conciliatory political undertakings that political actors on all sides now engage in to make the improbable possible. His emphasis is on political crafting: in regard to constitutional choices, to alliances and convergences between contestants, to trade-offs, to the pacing of the transitions. Di Palma also examines the reasons stalemate, the high cost of repression, a loss of goals, international constraints and inducements that may motivate incumbents and nondemocratic political actors to accept democracy, even in those cases, as in Central America and Eastern Europe, where acceptance would seem least likely.
An original and imaginative work that, in the light of recent transitions, challenges our assumptions about fledgling democracies and breaks new theoretical ground, To Craft Democracies will appeal to anyone interested in the way we forge our political communities today.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780520072145
Description
Is democracy a hot-house plant? And is it difficult to transplant it into new soil? The fall of so many dictatorships in the last few years - first in Southern Europe, then in Latin America, now in Eastern Europe - opens new, more optimistic perspectives on democratic development. The crises of dictatorships and the search for a new political order offer fertile ground for an examination of how best to effect democratic transitions. By focusing on the objective conditions that make democracy probable, sociological and historical theories of democracy often lose sight of what is possible. Here Giuseppe Di Palma instead explores those conciliatory political undertakings that political actors on all sides now engage in to make the improbable possible. His emphasis is on political crafting: in regard to constitutional choices, to alliances and convergences between contestants, to trade-offs, to the pacing of the transitions.
Di Palma also examines the reasons - stalemate, the high cost of repression, a loss of goals, international constraints and inducements - that may motivate incumbents and nondemocratic political actors to accept democracy, even in those cases, as in Central America and Eastern Europe, where acceptance would seem least likely. An original and imaginative work that, in the light of recent transitions, challenges our assumptions about fledgling democracies and breaks new theoretical ground, "To Craft Democracies" will appeal to anyone interested in the way we forge our political communities today.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
CHAPTER I Rethinking Some Hard Facts
CHAPTER II On Diffusion:How Democracy Can Grow in Many Soils
CHAPTER III Why Transferring Loyalties to Democracy May Be Less Difficult Than We Think
CHAPTER IV How Crafting Can Help the Transfer of Loyalties
CHAPTER V Tactics:On How to Sell One's Craft
CHAPTER VI Beyond Transitions:Why Democracy Can Deliver on Its Promises
CHAPTER VII Consolidation and Legitimacy:A Minimalist View of Two Big Words
CHAPTER VIII To Craft Which Democracies?
CHAPTER IX Democracy by Diffusion,
Democracy by Trespassing
Notes
Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
