Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe

by Juan Linz

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.

Genres: Politics, Political Science, History, Nonfiction

504 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 1996

About the author

Juan José Linz Storch de Gracia (24 December 1926 – 1 October 2013) was a German-born Spanish sociologist and political scientist specializing in comparative politics. From 1961 he was Sterling Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Political Science at Yale University and later also an honorary member of the Scientific Council at the Juan March Institute. He is best known for his work on authoritarian political regimes and democratization.

Reviews

[Indah Shafira · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for the reading on my Comparative Politics class. Just like his Authoritarian book, Linz explain really well on how democratic transition causing problems in different states. In this book Linz and Stephan also presented the Path-oriented Model that showed the process of Democratization from Authoritarian, Totalitarian, Post-Totalitarianism, and Sultanism. My main focus was on the democratization process in Spain with its referendum that was started in 1978 in the case of Reforma Pactada - Raptura Pactada. From this book I can relate it with nowadays issue such as Catalonia referendum that was happening few days ago, which was actually have been started from 1979 (Referendum on Devolution) wanting independence from Spain.

[Irine]

Pp. 344-365