Chair (2006-2008)
Jonathan Hartlyn
Professor of Political Science
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
e-mail: hartlyn@unc.edu
Vice-chair (2007-2009)
Catherine Boone
Professor of Government
University of Texas, Austin
cboone@mail.la.utexas.edu
Secretary (2007-2009)
Ellen Lust-Okar
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Yale University
ellen.lust-okar@yale.edu
Treasurer (2006-2008)
Michael Coppedge
Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Notre Dame
e-mail: Coppedge.1@nd.edu
Acting Newsletter Editor (ex officio)
Melissa Aten
Research and Conferences Coordinator
International Forum for Democratic Studies
National Endowment for Democracy
e-mail: MelissaA@ned.org
Comparative democratization remains a vigorous organized section within APSA with just under 700 members. I would like to thank again all the section officers and award committee members who worked so hard this past year. In particular, let me recognize our outgoing vice-chair, Gretchen Casper, and our outgoing secretary, Carrie Manning, for their invaluable contributions these past two years, and Mark Jones, our 2006 program chair. I also want to thank Tom Skladony for his years of invaluable service to our section as newsletter editor; Tom has recently left the International Forum where the newsletter is housed, and I am thankful to Melissa Aten, who has agreed to step into that role for the present even as she continues to maintain the section's website. I look forward to working with Catherine Boone (vice-chair), Michael Coppedge (treasurer), and Ellen Lust-Okar (secretary) over this next year and hope to hear from many of you.
I continue to believe a central goal of our section is to encourage and recognize all types of political science research on issues of democratization, in order to help you in your work while sustaining and ideally increasing the section's membership. One way to do this is to continue to publicize more extensively our five section awards, which are the Juan Linz best dissertation award, and awards for best book, best article, best field work, and best convention paper (awarded this year in Philadelphia for the first time). In a separate e-mail in a few weeks, I will be highlighting all of our awards and encouraging nominations.
Juan Linz's attendance at the Convention in Philadelphia was a special highlight for our section. He participated in the special panel our section held to honor his groundbreaking contributions to the study of democratization, and also helped us present the Juan Linz Dissertation Award at our Business Meeting. A summary of the comments made by Robert Fishman, one of the panel participants, are reprinted in this newsletter. The other panel participants were Larry Diamond, Alfred Stepan and Arturo Valenzuela.
I encourage all of you to submit panel and paper proposals for APSA 2007; the deadline is November 15, 2006. We all are appreciative of the hard work of our program chair for the 2007 APSA Convention, Valerie Bunce.
For those of you who seek greater involvement in the section, one way to do so is to serve on award committees; let me encourage nominations and self-nominations to me via email with a CV. We are also interested in publishing bibliographical essays in our newsletter, which can be thematic or regional in focus; we see this as a possible opportunity for publication for a graduate student, and we may be able to provide a modest stipend for such essays.
I am eager to hear your ideas and suggestions (hartlyn@unc.edu). I urge you to continue to send relevant information and news about your professional activities and publications, as well as conferences and fellowships and grant, to our newsletter editor.
Jonathan Hartlyn
3. SECTION NEWS
2007 APSA Annual Meeting: Valerie Bunce, our section's program chair for the 2007 annual meeting, will soon begin reviewing all the paper and panel proposals submitted by the November 15 deadline. We look forward to learning of her decisions next spring, and to seeing many of you at the 2007 meeting in Chicago.
Report on the 2006 APSA Meeting: The Comparative Democratization Section sponsored or cosponsored thirty-four panels at the 2006 APSA annual meeting in Philadelphia, PA. For a listing visit www.apsanet.org/mtgs/program/divisions.cfm and scroll down to Section 44. Papers presented at the meeting are available at http://64.112.226.77/one/apsa/apsa06/.
The Section's annual business meeting and reception were held on Saturday evening, September 2. Highlights of the meeting included the installation of new officers; the awarding of prizes for the Juan Linz Prize for Best Dissertation in Comparative Study of Democracy, and for the best book, article, field work and paper presented at last year's convention. For complete details see the minutes prepared by Ellen Lust-Okar of Yale University, the newly-elected secretary of the Comparative Democratization section.
Minutes of the Annual Business Meeting, September 2, 2006:
Welcome to the Meeting: Section Chair Jonathan Hartlyn (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm in Washington C room of the Loews Hotel in Philadelphia. Approximately forty people were in attendance. The Chair began by inviting them to a reception, co-sponsored by the International Forum for Democratic Studies, following the meeting.
OLD BUSINESS
Chair's Report: Jonathan Hartlyn also announced that the membership remains healthy as the section ends its fifth year. With 691 members, as counted by APSA, Comparative Democratization is now APSA's tenth largest section. Membership has increased slightly, up from 640 in 2005. Voting in the elections is also strong, with a 39 percent participation rate in the elections for Secretary and Vice Chair. This is also up slightly from last year's rate of 38 percent. He reminded members that while Comparative Democratization membership is not linked to a journal subscription, it does provide a 20 percent discount for the Journal of Democracy.
The chair then announced several opportunities for involvement. The first is to serve on award committees; nominations and self-nominations for which should be sent to him now via email with a CV. Second is to contribute to the newsletter. The section calls for bibliographic essays – thematic or regional in focus – which could be included in the newsletter. This would be an appropriate opportunity for publication for a graduate student, and the committee may be able to provide a modest stipend for such essays. Third is to participate in a working group which the section plans to host at APSA 2007. Finally, the chair relayed a message from Larry Diamond, who had participated at the IPSA Convention in Japan this year and met with Laurence Whitehead, Chair of IPSA's Comparative Democratization Research Committee. They would like to coordinate efforts for the 2009 IPSA meeting in Santiago, Chile and invite members to join IPSA's Comparative Democratization Research Committee. The chair reminded members that, as members of APSA, they may join research committees at IPSA without paying IPSA dues.
Finally, the chair gave a warm welcome to Juan Linz, who joined the meeting and the presentation of the Juan Linz dissertation award. Jonathan Hartlyn noted that the section had sponsored a roundtable that morning which had discussed the impact of Juan Linz's work.
Treasurer's Report: Michael Coppedge (University of Notre Dame) reported that the section's financial situation remains steady. Income from dues totaled $2,457 to date, and he expects to receive an estimated $1,000 in dues from APSA before the end of the year. The projected end-of-the-year balance is $3,294, which is slightly higher than last year's balance of $3,243.20. Projected expenses, including prize money for 2006, elections for section leadership, the APSA reception and a dinner honoring Juan Linz, were $3,405.95
Newsletter Report: In introducing Tom Skladony (International Forum, NED), Jonathan Hartlyn thanked Tom for his work editing the newsletter, and also the International Forum and the Journal of Democracy of the NED for their contribution to the reception.
Tom Skladony reported that the newsletter continues to come out three times a year: once in the fall, at the beginning of the spring semester and at the end of the academic year. In addition, he and the Forum continue to serve as a clearing house for special communications with members.
The editor then introduced Melissa Aten, who manages the website, works with interns who put together the bibliography on democratization, and also contributes substantially to the newsletter. Tom Skladony then appealed to members to continue to send announcements to them for circulation. If members have given papers, published books or articles, or had other accomplishments they would like to share, he looks forward to including these in the newsletter.
In addition, the editor reiterated the appeal for contributions, particularly bibliographic review essays that would focus on a region or a theme.
Program Chair's Report: Mark Jones (Rice University) was unable to attend, and thus Jonathan Hartlyn read his communication. The section was given twenty-three panels this year, including twenty-one through normal criteria (attendance at least year's meeting) and two because it is a section that is less than 5 years old. The section sponsored eleven Comparative Democratization panels and used the ten remaining allotments to co-sponsor panels with a number of sections, including Comparative Politics, Comparative Politics of Developing Areas, Iberian Studies, etc. The section also sponsored twenty-three posters. Jonathan Hartlyn announced that Valerie Bunce (Cornell University) will be the program chair in 2007.
Awards
Juan Linz Dissertation Award: Fabrice Lehoucq (CIDE) presented the Juan Linz award for the best dissertation to Mieczyslaw Boduszynski (University of California at Berkeley) for his dissertation, "Explaining Post-Communist Diversity: Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States, 1990-2004." His dissertation advisor was Andrew Janos.
The other committee members included Nancy Bermeo (Princeton University), who chaired the committee, and Marc Morjé Howard (Georgetown University).
Committee's Remarks on the Award Winner
The committee agreed to award the 2006 Juan Linz Dissertation Prize in the Comparative Study of Democratization to Mieczyslaw Pawel Boduszynski.
Dr. Boduszynski received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004. His dissertation is entitled "Explaining Post-Communist Diversity: Regime Change in the Yugoslav Successor States, 1990-2004." Boduszynski's dissertation was chaired by Professor Andrew C. Janos. The other members of his committee were Professor George W. Breslauer, Steven K. Vogel, and John Connelly.
Boduszynski's dissertation explains the divergent trajectories of post-communist states in Eastern and Central Europe after 1989. He focuses on Slovenia, which became a "substantive democracy," Croatia, which became a "simulated democracy," Serbia-Montenegro, which became a "populist authoritarian regime," and Macedonia, which became an "illegitimate democracy." The author argues that initial economic conditions and modes of accommodation and resistance to Western efforts to transfer liberal norms shaped the political trajectories of these countries.
The committee decided to make Dr. Boduszynski's thesis the recipient of the 2006 Juan Linz Dissertation Award for two reasons. First, this dissertation artfully combines the use of a large number of interviews, local and international newspapers, survey data, and secondary sources to explain developments in four former republics of Yugoslavia. Second, it marshals this evidence to analyze the interaction between choices made by public officials, citizens, and Western governments and prevailing and evolving economic and political conditions to account for why rather different regimes emerged in these republics. Boduszynski's dissertation is, in other words, a wonderful example of the sort of the historical and path-contingent research that Juan Linz pioneered in his professional life.
Juan Linz congratulated the winner and made a few remarks, recalling particular issues and debates about democratization relating to Yugoslavia.
Best Book Award: Committee chair Andreas Schedler (CIDE) presented the Best Book award to M. Steven Fish (University of California at Berkeley) for his study of the failure of democratization in post-communist Russia, Democracy Derailed in Russia (CUP, 2005). The winner was unable to attend, and thus Jason Wittenberg (University of California at Berkeley) accepted it on his behalf. Jason Wittenberg read a communication from Steven, thanking the section for the honor and explaining he was unable to attend due to the birth of his son.
Other committee members were Doh Shin (University of Missouri) and Anna Gryzmala-Busse (University of Michigan).
Committee's Remarks on the Award Winner The Organized Section on Comparative Democratization of the American Political Science Organization has decided to grant the award for the best book on comparative democratization published in 2005 to M. Steven Fish from the University of California at Berkeley for his book Democracy Derailed in Russia: The Failure of Open Politics (Cambridge University Press).
The award committee chose the book for the commendable conceptual, theoretical, and methodological care and clarity it displays in explaining the political trajectory of modern Russia.
Fish argues that contemporary Russia cannot be regarded a democratic regime, despite the holding of regular multiparty elections. To establish this controversial initial claim, he goes to considerable length to document violations of democratic norms, such as election fraud, voter coercion, and the exclusion of parties and candidates, that have been observed regularly in Russian national and local elections since the mid 1990s. As his insightful discussion shows, framing our empirical research and defining the very puzzles that animate it depends on careful conceptualization and close knowledge of our objects of study.
As he proceeds from the conceptualization and classification of his case to its explanation, Fish delivers an admirable instance of a methodological species that is still rare and under-developed in comparative politics: an embedded case study. His explanatory reconstruction of the regime trajectory of a single country, Russia, is systematically embedded in the statistical examination of available cross-national evidence (worldwide as well as regional).
With his methodologically transparent and self-conscious framework, large-N explorations establish patterns of co-variation between theoretically meaningful variables. As he finds, neither the level of socio-economic development nor religion nor political culture are to blame for "Russia's Quandary." Instead, he argues, the key variables that explain the "failure of open politics" in Russia are corruption fuelled by natural riches (petroleum and natural gas); the stagnation of liberalizing economic reform; and the constitutional concentration of power in the hands of the executive. In establishing his causal claims, Fish combines his in-depth knowledge of Russian politics with further statistical data that allow to situate the Russian republic in comparative perspective.
In addition to its methodological innovativeness and theoretical reflexiveness, the book, we would like to add, also provides considerable aesthetic pleasures. It is delightfully written, with touches of humour we do not find too often in serious comparative research.
All in all, we extend our warmest congratulations to the deserving winner!
Best Article Award: Committee chair Lisa Baldez (Dartmouth College) presented the award for the best article published on comparative democratization in 2005 to Lucan Way (University of Toronto) for his article, "Authoritarian Statebuilding and the Sources of Regime Competitiveness in the Fourth Wave," which appeared in the January 2005 World Politics.
Other committee members were Michele Penner Angrist (Union College) and Laurence Whitehead (Oxford University – Nuffield College).
Committee's Remarks on the Award Winner
The winner of the Best Article Award this year goes to Lucan Way, for "Authoritarian State Building and the Sources of Regime Competitiveness in the Fourth Wave: The Cases of Belarus, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine," which appeared in the January 2005 World Politics.
The article addresses two central questions: first, why did these four countries go from open to closed in the 1990s, and second, what explains variations in the level of competitiveness among them? Way demonstrates persuasively that variations across the four cases cannot be explained by transitions literature. He develops a new approach that emphasizes two main explanatory variables: incumbent capacity and strength of national identity that can be framed in anti-incumbent terms. To paraphrase (somewhat glibly): incumbents have little control of state institutions in the wake of dissolution of the previous regimes, but they figure it out over time, and nationalism taps into the kinds of emotions that facilitate mobilization to a far greater extent than calls of "let's privatize!"
This article constitutes a "fundamental rethinking of the transition process." He even invokes the name of this organized section as evidence of the overly hopeful and analytically misleading assumptions on which democracy promotion is built.
Indeed. At points the argument reads like a how-to manual for burgeoning authoritarians, with statements such as "Leaders must be able to keep allies in line" and "In an international environment that demands at least nominal adherence to democratic procedures, autocrats must be able to rig elections as well as intimidate the opposition, control the media and prevent economic actors from supporting rival forces." We suspect that the appearance of this article generated a big jump in World Politics subscriptions from countries like Venezuela and Bolivia. We wonder if USAID and Freedom House thought about canceling their subscriptions when they read the piece.
We found Way's article distinctive for its theoretical significance, empirical detail and strong writing. The fieldwork is both broad and deep. We like the strategy of including one big country and three smaller but very significant ones. The quotes from extensive interviews contain revealing comments from political officials, evidence of skill and finesse on his part. Way writes extremely well and in a way that suggests an arid sense of humor. In one example, he lists a series of actions such as bombing parliament, shutting down TV stations, threatening to imprison anyone who "slanders" incumbents, and then states that "such actions suggest that it is unlikely that democratic values account for the extensive political competition in these countries in the early 1990s."
A note on methodology might prove helpful to future committees. We considered a wide range of articles, including all the 2005 articles listed in the section's newsletters, approximately 10 articles nominated for the prize, and relevant articles that appeared in Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, World Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, APSR, AJPS and Perspectives on Politics. We did not define a metric for comparing quality a priori; each committee member developed her own criteria.
Best Field Research Award: Committee chair Leslie Anderson (University of Florida) presented the award for best dissertation fieldwork to two co-recipients:
Manal Jamal (McGill University) for her dissertation, "After the Peace Processes: Foreign Donor Assistance and the Political Economy of Marginalization in Palestine and El Salvador," chaired by Juliet Johnson (McGill).
Anupma Kulkarni (Stanford University) for her dissertation, "Demons and Demos: Violence, Memory and Citizenship in Post-Conflict States," chaired by Terry Karl (Stanford).
Other committee members were Milada Anna Vachudova (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) and Lucan Way (University of Toronto).
Committee's Remarks on the Award Winners
The co-winners of the Best Field Work Award were Dr. Manal Jamal and Dr. Anu Kulkarni. Dr. Jamal is a new PhD graduate of McGill University whose dissertation is entitled "After the Peace Processes: Foreign Donor Assistance and the Political Economy of Marginalization in Palestine and El Salvador," chaired by Dr. Juliette Johnson. For her field work Dr. Jamal did 130 interviews in Arabic and Spanish focusing upon the role of NGOs in the process of democratization. Dr. Kulkarni is a new PhD graduate of Stanford University whose dissertation is entitled "Demons and Demos: Violence, Memory and Citizenship in Post Conflict States," chaired by Dr. Terry Karl. Dr. Kulkarni did interviews with victims and perpetrators of human rights violence in the areas of South Africa known as KwaZuluNatal and the Western Cape.
Best Convention Paper Award: Committee chair Kirk Bowman (Georgia Institute of Technology) presented the award to Marc Morjé Howard (Georgetown University) and Phillip Roessler (University of Maryland) for their paper, "Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Authoritarian Regimes," which has subsequently been published in AJPS.
Marc Morjé Howard accepted the award and paid a special tribute to Juan Linz, who had been his professor as an undergraduate at Yale University and inspired him to pursue his Ph.D. in political science.
Other committee members were Gabriella Montinola (University of California, Davis) and Arang Keshavarzian (Concordia University).
Committee's Remarks on the Award Winners Marc Howard and Philip Roessler's "Liberalizing Electoral Outcomes in Competitive Electoral Regimes" significantly advances the important sub-field of hybrid regimes. The authors both engage in a typological and conceptual discussion of how to conceptualize what they call "competitive authoritarianism" and study how at certain points elections under these authoritarian regimes may trigger a liberalizing break, a concept they call the liberalizing electoral outcome. The authors use quantitative research methods to compare the explanatory power of competing hypotheses and a powerful case study of Kenya to illuminate the causal mechanisms. The result is a well-written, innovative, and compelling argument that represents a major contribution to the comparative democratization literature and a model for our students and ourselves of targeting multiple methods on our research questions.
UNDP Democratic Governance Program: Pippa Norris (UNDP) announced that the UNDP Democratic Governance Program is particularly interested in strengthening linkages with the academic community. Opportunities for scholars to work with the UNDP and to impact policy include consultancies and internships. She also invited scholars to send their papers to the program.
NEW BUSINESS
Induction of New Officers. Jonathan Hartlyn (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) thanked outgoing Vice Chair Gretchen Casper (Penn State University) and Secretary Carrie Manning (Georgia State University) for their service.
He welcomed the new Vice Chair Catherine Boone (University of Texas, Austin) and Secretary Ellen Lust-Okar (Yale University). He also thanked Marcus Kreuzer (Villanova University) and Steven Levitsky (Harvard University) for participating in the elections.
The meeting was adjourned at 7pm and was followed by a reception co-sponsored by NED's International Forum for Democratic Studies.
Ellen Lust-Okar
Section Secretary
4. ROBERT FISHMAN ON JUAN LINZ
"Understanding the Linzian Approach to Democratization" by Robert M. Fishman, University of Notre Dame
APSA Convention, Philadelphia, September 2, 2006.
It is a pleasure and an honor to offer reflections and analysis on the contributions to the study of democratization made by someone to whom I, so many of us in this section of APSA, and the field as a whole, owe so much. In this newsletter entry I offer a summary of remarks offered at the Section Panel on Juan Linz at the recent Philadelphia meetings, remarks which reflect an analysis that I developed at greater length for a lecture delivered at the Institut de Cičncies Polítiques i Socials (ICPS) in Barcelona this past May – soon to be published as a chapter in an ICPS volume honoring Juan. In these lines, as in those previous remarks, I will identify what I take to be the intellectual unity – and organizing theoretical principles – of the Linzian approach to democratization.
It is at once an easy and difficult task to do so: An easy one, as is obvious, because of the wealth of material from which to select and a difficult one due to the enormous difficulty of choosing what to emphasize. I stress three points: First, that the Weberian character of Linz's scholarship should be understood above all in methodological terms and that this is evident in the simultaneous Linzian concern for generalizing theory and case-specific nuance; secondly, that much of Linz's work can be understood as an answer to the great question of whether different types of regimes survive or fall for the same set of reasons – or for different ones, a question which Linz, in stark contrast to Samuel Huntington, answered by insisting that the dynamics of regime change (or survival) are bounded by regime type; and thirdly, that Linz's work is characterized by a combination of i) relatively parsimonious generalizing theoretical claims, ii) more or less "free-standing" theoretical claims that can be understood as largely independent from other elements of his work and iii) case-based nuance and complexity.
The Weberian roots of Linzian scholarship have been stressed by many scholars including Linz himself. I argue that the key to Linz's Weberian perspective – and thus to an overall appreciation of his approach – is to be found not in the content of specific conceptual or theoretical claims but instead in his, and earlier Weber's, underlying methodology. As I have argued elsewhere* the central feature of Weberian methodology is its simultaneous embrace of both poles in a series of intellectual tensions, most prominently 1) the opposition between the search for generalizing concepts and theories versus the dedication to uncovering and analyzing case-specific nuance and specificity and 2) the juxtaposition of subjective and objective principles in social science work. Linz's work, like that of Weber, exemplifies the scholarly path that embraces both poles of these seeming oppositions. It is deeply theoretical and strongly pursues the objective of generalizing claims, but it weaves such cross-case formulations together with a constant preoccupation with the reality of specific cases, inevitably a reality more complex and individual than suggested by cross-case theories and concepts.
Linz, like Weber, is motivated to uncover 'why reality is so and not otherwise.' To satisfy this intellectual search, his work formulates and deploys generalizing concepts and theories as well as case specific and historically sensitive analysis. Historically specific observations and subtleties are not, for Linz, an alternative to generalizing theory; instead they complement such theory and serve as a corrective to its (necessary) lack of a perfect fit with underlying reality.
Also in the Weberian tradition, Linz's work addresses questions of real significance and meaning for persons who care deeply about politics, but it does so in ways that often generate what Weber called 'inconvenient conclusions' running counter to the expectations and hopes of those actors most directly feeling the significance and meaning of the questions posed. Fundamental to the Weberian approach to social science is the commitment to ask questions that arise from the values and concerns of political actors – and social scientists – but to answer those questions in the most objective and rigorous manner possible. This determination to use the tools of social science to address questions that really matter in the minds of those passionately concerned with politics helps to explain why Linz's work and intellectual guidance have exerted a strong appeal to students engaged with political commitments across the ideological spectrum. One of Juan's Columbia University students, Al Szymanski, dedicated his first book jointly to Juan Linz and the National Liberation Front of Vietnam, an organization that Linz never identified with at all! Linz has attracted students from a wide range of perspectives but most of his students, like Juan himself, care deeply about politics and feel a need to search for compelling answers to questions arising from their politics and values.
I turn now to my second point, which concerns the overarching theoretical focus of Linz's work. Much of Linz's scholarship on regime types and regime transitions can be understood as one grand answer to the same great question answered in a fundamentally different way by another major figure of comparative political analysis: Samuel Huntington. The question is whether the survival or collapse and transformation of all types of political systems follows one unified causal logic – or different logics specific to regime type. Huntington's most influential book, Political Order in Changing Societies, argues quite elegantly that there is one unified logic determining the survival or collapse of all types of political systems. For Huntington in that classic work, the degree of institutionalization of a system – resting on the strength of the system's component institutions – determines its survival chances independently of regime type. Linz's theoretical endeavor proposes something quite different and insists on the importance of conceptualizing and understanding contrasts among regime types.
Linz's work, much of it developed in collaboration with Alfred Stepan, elaborates the theoretical claim that the logics of regime survival or transformation are bounded by regime type. As Gerardo Munck has noted in an insightful methodological essay, for Linz and Stepan the typology of regimes, to which Linz devoted so much time, proves decisive in studying and understanding regime transitions.** In Linzian analysis – in contrast to the arguments of Huntington's Political Order – different types of political systems do not survive or fall for the same reasons. We encounter in Linz's writings variations by regime type in the impact of certain phenomena on the survival chances of political systems, perhaps most tellingly in the role of political ambiguity and ambivalence in regime breakdowns – or survival. In democracies, Linz conceptualizes ambivalence and ambiguity toward the regime's fundamental organizing principles as semiloyalty and argues that this proves as decisive as outright disloyalty in generating democratic breakdowns. But authoritarian regimes, as conceptualized by Linz, can live and survive with many manifestations of ambivalence and ambiguity. Indeed they do not always repress their 'semi-oppositions.' What they cannot tolerate and typically repress severely is unambiguous opposition, not ambivalence and ambiguity. In contrast, totalitarian regimes, in the Linzian formulation, do not tolerate ambiguity and ambivalence, and typically repress them severely. In Linz's typology of regimes, different forms of political rule treat – and respond to – ambivalence and ambiguity toward the regime in widely dissimilar ways and this variation carries significant consequences for the survival or transformation of these regimes. Linz's theorization also takes up other points of differentiation among regime types that carry consequences for his understanding of regime breakdown – or stability. The challenges of legitimacy, efficacy and effectiveness take on dissimilar dynamics in Linz's different types of regime. It is worth stating that more recent quantitative analysis by other scholars has shown that the risk profile of political systems in the face of exogenous shocks does indeed vary by regime type. The elaborate Linzian effort to develop an analysis of regime types and tie it together with a theory of regime breakdown – or stability – stands on strong ground. Linz has done more than any other theorist to establish the importance of differentiating among regime types when analyzing processes of system change or continuity.
The third point that I wish to introduce concerns the levels and types of theorization to be found in Linz's work. Linz is not typically seen as a parsimonious theorist – as is quite understandable given the extraordinary complexity and historical detail of his work – yet one can find many important parsimonious theoretical claims in his analysis. Alongside elegantly parsimonious claims and a general theoretical project manifesting a great deal of intellectual unity, one also encounters in Linz's scholarship many historically specific observations and numerous "free-standing" insights and theoretical claims that are relatively independent of much else that he argues. This combination, as with so much else in Linzian scholarship, is thoroughly Weberian. Among the highly parsimonious claims formulated by Linz is his proposition in The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes that the survival chances of democracies are enhanced by the breadth of the regime-founding coalition and the narrowness of the regime-founding agenda. Yet his work is also full of more "free-standing" and middle-range arguments such as his analysis of time and regime change, his pioneering arguments on the dangers of presidentialism and many others. In the Weberian tradition Linz weaves together different types and levels of theorization and empirical analysis. This combination of diverse intellectual strands is intentional and it does not reflect a disinterest in any of the component strands – such as elegantly parsimonious theoretical claims. Instead it reflects Linz's constant search for the most useful tools to make sense out of the problems he confronts – such as the forces and dynamics leading to success or failure in democratic transitions.
The overall package of theoretical and empirical sensibilities is one of extraordinary power in its ability to identify and account for differences in political regime outcomes, and in its capacity to address concerns that are deeply meaningful to scholars and political actors.
* I develop this claim in my chapter in Laurence McFalls (ed.) Revisiting Weber's "Objectivity," (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, forthcoming, 2007.
** See Gerardo L. Munck, "Tools for Qualitative Analysis," pp. 105-121 in Henry E. Brady and DAvid Collier (eds.) Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004).
Leslie E. Anderson, associate professor of political science, University of Florida, published "Fascists or Revolutionaries? Left and Right Politics of the Rural Poor" in the April 2006 International Political Science Review, in which she compares rural support for authoritarian populism in the new democracies in eastern Europe and Latin America. The author compares four cases of rural support for authoritarian populism and contrasts them with patterns of peasant leftism and concludes that the difference lies within background factors (economic and social relations, the nature of land tenure) and foreground factors (political leadership, organizational style, and rhetoric).
Leslie Elliott Armijo, visiting scholar of political science, Portland State University, Philippe Faucher, and Magdalena Dembinska published "Compared to What? Assessing Brazilian Political Institutions" in the August 2006 Comparative Political Studies. The authors reinterpret recent institutionalist findings about Brazil and critique a research approach that gives excessive weight to formal (and quantifiable) political institutions, to the detriment of informal, and possibly more democratic, political processes.
Sheri Berman, associate professor of political science, Barnard College, Columbia University, published The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe's Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 2006). The book traces the history of social democracy from its origins in the late nineteenth century to the present and shows how it beat out competitors such as classical liberalism, orthodox Marxism, and its cousins, Fascism and National Socialism, by solving the central challenge of reconciling the competing needs of capitalism and democracy.
Javier Corrales, associate professor and department chair of political science, Amherst College, contributed "Political Obstacles to Expanding and Improving Schooling in Developing Countries" to Global Educational Expansion: Historical Legacies and Political Obstacles (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2006), a volume he co-edited with Aaron Beavot and Julia Resnik. Mr. Corrales also published "Does Parental Participation in Schools Empower or Strain Civil Society? The Case of Community-Managed Schools in Central America" in the August 2006 Journal of Social Policy and Administration.
Mr. Corrales also published "Cuba's New Daddy: Venezuelan-Cuban Relations Since 2000" in the fall 2006 Hemisphere.
Todd A. Eisenstadt, assistant professor of government, American University, recently completed a fellowship at the Center for US-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego, where he worked on the project "Indians by Choice: Individuals, Traditional Communities, and the State in Southern Mexico." Mr. Eisenstadt and colleagues at the Benito Juárez Autonomous University in Oaxaca and the Washington-based Due Process Law Foundation have recently received a three-year grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development's Higher Education in Development Program, where they will complete a project on "Uniting Law and Society in Oaxaca, Mexico: A Research and Teaching Program."
Tulia Falleti, assistant professor of political science, University of Pennsylvania, received the Gregory Luebbert Article Award for the best article in the field of comparative politics published in 2004 or 2005 for her article "A Sequential Theory of Decentralization: Latin American Cases in Comparative Perspective," which appeared in the August 2005 American Political Science Review. The award was presented by the Comparative Politics organized section of the American Political Science Association at its 2006 annual meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Jonathan Fox, professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, published "World Separation of Religion and State Into the 21st Century" in the June 2006 Comparative Political Studies. Using the "Religion and State" database, Mr. Fox examined the extent of separation of religion and state between 1990 and 2002 in 152 countries. When using the criteria of no state support for and no state restrictions on religion, he found that only the U.S. has full separation of religion and state. He also found that democracies have higher levels of separation than do autocratic states but rarely have full separation, contradicting the idea that this is an essential element of democracy.
James L. Gibson, Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government, Washington University in St. Louis, received the Award for Conceptual Innovation in Democratic Studies for his book Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation? (Russell Sage Foundation, 2004). This prize is awarded tri-annually by the International Political Science Association's Committee on Concepts and Methods and the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (CIDE) in Mexico. Mr. Gibson was also elected to the governing board of the Committee.
Mr. Gibson published "Do Strong Group Identities Fuel Intolerance? Evidence from the South African Case" in the October 2006 Political Psychology; "The Contributions of Truth to Reconciliation: Lessons from South Africa" in the June 2006 Journal of Conflict Resolution; and "Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation?" in the January 2006 Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
As of September 1, 2006, Christian W. Haerpfer, formerly associate professor of politics, University of Aberdeen, is the new chair of the department of politics and international relations at that university, where he will teach classes on "Democracy: Issues and Controversies" and "Democratization." Mr. Haerpfer is also cooperating with the World Values Survey and the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems. He is currently convening a lecture series at the University of Aberdeen. Contact him at c.w.haerpfer@abdn.ac.uk to express interest in participating in these lectures.
Henry Hale, assistant professor of political science and international affairs, George Washington University, published "Democracy or Autocracy on the March? The Colored Revolutions as Normal Dynamics of Patronal Presidentialism" in the September 2006 Communist and Post-Communist Studies, in which he argues Eurasia's 2003–2005 "colored revolutions" were succession struggles rather than democratic breakthroughs generated by civic activists and foreign democratizing activity. Mr. Hale also published "Regime Cycles: Democracy, Autocracy, and Revolution in Post-Soviet Eurasia" in the October 2005 World Politics.
Mr. Hale and Ildar Gabdrafikov contributed the chapter "Bashkortostan's Democratic Moment? Patronal Presidentialism, Regional Regime Change, and Identity in Russia" to Reconstruction and Interaction of Slavic Eurasia and Its Neighboring Worlds, a volume edited by Ieda Osamu and Uyama Tomohiko and published by the Slavic Research Center in 2006.
John Higley, professor of government, University of Texas at Austin, and Michael Burton published Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), a culmination of the authors' several decades of research on the pivotal role played by elites in the success or failure of political regimes. The authors argue that obstacles to the emergence of elites propitious for liberal democracy are more formidable than democratization enthusiasts recognize.
Marc Morjé Howard, formerly assistant professor of government, Georgetown University, has recently been promoted to associate professor with tenure. His latest article, "Comparative Citizenship: An Agenda for Cross-National Research," appeared in the September 2006 Perspectives on Politics and is an attempt to integrate the study of citizenship into debates in comparative politics by justifying the real-world importance of the topic and by presenting some suggestive evidence based on the fifteen "older" countries of the European Union.
Krzysztof Jasiewicz, professor of sociology, Washington and Lee University, was awarded a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowship at the National Endowment Democracy in the fall, where he will complete a project on "Civil Society, Religion, and Democracy in Postcommunist Poland."
Cindy R. Jebb, professor and deputy department head of social sciences, United States Military Academy, West Point, P.H. Liotta, Thomas Sherlock, and Ruth Margolies Beitler published The Fight for Legitimacy: Democracy vs. Terrorism (Praeger Security International, 2006), in which they argue that the best way for states to win legitimacy vis-ŕ-vis terrorists is by adhering to liberal democratic values, cooperating with other states, and applying prudent counterterrorist tactics.
Mirjam Künkler, Ph.D. candidate in political science, Columbia University, organized a week-long seminar on "Democracy Promotion, Rights, and Religion" held August 21–25, 2006, at the Villigst Foundation in Germany. The seminar examined the extent to which religious institutions became agents of civic education in the context of U.S. reeducation programs in post-WWII Germany, and explored the conditions under which Islamic institutions may become agents of civic education in democracy promotion programs in the Muslim world.
Adrienne LeBas, assistant professor of political science, Michigan State University, published "Polarization as Craft: Party Formation and State Violence in Zimbabwe" in the July 2006 Comparative Politics, in which the author argues that the development of political polarization in Zimbabwe over the past four years is due to the connection between actors' strategies and the broader process of political change.
Leany Barreiro de Sousa Lemos, legislative advisor to Senator Cristovam Buarque, Brazilian Federal Senate, won the Premio ALACIP award for the best doctoral dissertation in political science in Latin America for his dissertation on "Legislative Control in Presidential Democracies: Brazil and United States in Comparative Perspective," which he completed at the University of Brasília, Brazil in 2005. This prize is awarded by the Asociación Latinoamericana de Ciencia Política.
Staffan Lindberg, formerly assistant professor of political science, Kent State University, has accepted a joint position as assistant professor of political science and at the Center for African Studies, University of Florida. He recently published Democracy and Elections in Africa (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), in which he argues that democratizing nations learn to become democratic through repeated democratic behavior, even if their elections are often flawed.
In November Mr. Lindberg will also chair a roundtable discussion on "Democratization in Africa: What Role Does Elections Play?" with Larry Diamond, senior fellow, Hoover Institution; Joel D. Barkan, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Iowa; Carrie Manning, associate professor of political science, Georgia State University; and Stephen Ndegwa at the African Studies Association's annual meeting in San Francisco. Mr. Lindberg will also present the paper "Opposition Parties and Development of Democracy" at the annual symposium of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa in Johannesburg.
Scott P. Mainwaring, Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Government and International Studies, and director, Kellogg Institute for International Affairs, University of Notre Dame, Ana María Bejarano, and Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez edited The Crisis of Democratic Representation in the Andes, a compilation of essays that analyze and explain the crisis of democratic representation in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Cynthia McClintock, professor of political science, George Washington University, and currently a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; and James Lebovic published "Correlates of Levels of Democracy in Latin America during the 1990s" in the summer 2006 Latin American Politics and Society. The authors challenge the assertion that high levels of social trust and a number of political parties are significantly correlated with the level of democracy by utilizing new data sets for the region.
Kelly McMann, assistant professor of political science, Case Western Reserve University, received a Social Science Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for her project "Coping Without Communism: The Transformation of State-Society Relations in Post- Soviet Central Asia." The fellowship will provide funds for research assistants and materials from 2006 to 2008.
Bryon Moraski, assistant professor of political science, University of Florida, published Elections by Design: Parties and Patronage in Russia's Regions (Northern Illinois University Press, 2006), in which he investigates the origins of the legislative electoral systems in the eighty-nine regions of the Russian Federation.
Mr. Moraski published "Prospects for Professional Parliaments in Russia's Regions" in the June 2006 Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, in which he argues that Vladimir Putin's decision to appoint governors should spur political conflict in Russia as regional elites with personal stakes in their regional economies and vested interests in democratic institutions confront an encroaching federal government. Mr. Moraski also published "Mandating Party Development in the Russian Federation: Effects of the 2001 Party Law," which will appear in the October 2006 Journal of Elections, Public Opinion, and Parties.
Conor O'Dwyer, assistant professor of political science, University of Florida, and fellow, Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies, published Runaway State-Building: Patronage Politics and Democratic Development (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006). By analyzing the cases of three newly democratized nations in Eastern Europe (Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia), Mr. O'Dwyer introduces the phenomenon of runaway state-building as a consequence of patronage politics in underdeveloped, noncompetitive party systems and argues that competition among political parties constrains patronage-led state expansion.
The dissertation on which the book is based won the 2004 best dissertation award by the European Politics and Societies organized section of the American Political Science Association.
Riccardo Pelizzo, assistant professor of political science, Singapore Management University, Rick Stapenhurst, and Niall Johnston edited The Role of Parliament in Curbing Corruption (World Bank, 2006). The book examines what parliaments and parliamentarians, with the help of the media and civil society, can do to oversee government activities, the budget, and government accounts in effort to curb corruption.
Mr. Pelizzo and Gianfranco Pasquino also published Democratic Parliaments (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2006), a book that focuses on democratic parliaments in a comparative perspective by examining presidential, semi-presidential, and parliamentary forms of government.
John James Quinn, associate professor of political science, Truman State University, and John Ishiyama, professor of political science, Truman State University, published "African Phoenix? Explaining the Electoral Performance of the Formerly Dominant Parties in Africa" in the May 2006 Party Politics. Using evidence from twenty-two sub-Saharan African countries over fifty-three legislative elections from 1990 to 2003, the authors find that the legacies of different previous regimes, party incumbency, and the degree of ethno-linguistic fractionalization impact the relative electoral success of formerly dominant parties.
Mr. Quinn and David J. Simon, lecturer of political science, Yale University, published "Plus ça change…: The Allocation of French ODA to Africa during and after the Cold War" in the July–September 2006 International Interactions, in which they examine whether France reoriented the allocation of its official development assistance to Africa to reflect changing national priorities.
Sharon Werning Rivera, assistant professor of government, Hamilton College, and David W. Rivera published "The Russian Elite under Putin: Militocratic or Bourgeois?" in the April-June 2006 Post-Soviet Affairs. Using an original data base as well as a reexamination of previously-published findings, the authors investigate trends in the pattern of elite formation under Putin and examine the implications of these trends for stability and democracy in Russia.
Lloyd I. Rudolph, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph published Postmodern Gandhi and Other Essays: Gandhi in the World and at Home (University of Chicago Press, 2006), a collection of eight essays that argues Gandhi should be viewed as a postmodernist, not a traditionalist as commonly assumed.
Mr. Rudolph and John Kurt Jacobsen edited Experiencing the State (Oxford University Press, 2006), a collection of twelve essays that examines how the state has been encountered in everyday life in the U.S., Western Europe, the former Soviet Union, South Asia, and the Far East.
In spring and summer 2006, Eve Sandberg, associate professor of politics, Oberlin College, served as the Professional Consultant for the Cleveland International Program, "Ethiopia Governance, Transparency & Citizen Action Project" in Cleveland and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which was funded by the U.S. State Department Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.
Carsten Q. Schneider, assistant professor of political science and Ph.D. program director, Central European University, Budapest, and Claudius Wagemann published "Reducing Complexity in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA): Remote and Proximate Factors and the Consolidation of Democracy" in the August 2006 European Journal of Political Research. The authors suggest a two-step approach as one possibility to mitigate problems associated with comparative methods based on set theoretic relationships such as "fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis."
Jillian Schwedler, assistant professor of government and politics, University of Maryland, published Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Ms. Schwedler argues that examining the political behavior of Islamist parties alone provides insufficient evidence of moderation because it discounts the possibility that political actors might act as if they are moderate while harboring radical agendas. Using the Islamic Action Front (IAF) party in Jordan and the Islah party in Yemen, she argues that IAF has become more moderate through participation in pluralist politics, while the Islah party has not, due particularly to the ways in which the IAF has been able to justify its new pluralist practices on Islamic terms while the Islah party has not.
Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Jonathan Fox, professor of Latin American and Latino Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Xochitl Bada edited "Invisible No More: Mexican Migrant Civic Participation in the United States." Published by the Woodrow Wilson Center and the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2006, the report is a result of a November 2005 conference that brought together U.S. and Mexican researchers, migrant leaders, and immigrant rights' advocates to explore Mexican migrants' wide range of social, civic, and political engagements in the U.S.
The Wilson Center also launched two Web sites that track political developments in Mexico (www.wilsoncenter.org/mexico) and Brazil (www.wilsoncenter.org/brazil).
Timothy Sisk, associate professor of international studies, University of Denver, and Judith Large published Democracy, Conflict, and Human Security: Pursuing Peace in the 21st Century Volume 1 (International IDEA, 2006). The book explores the triple challenges of democratization, conflict management, and the realization of immediate, transitional, and long-term human security objectives by the international community. The final chapter provides recommendations for the strengthening of democratic practice worldwide.
At the American Political Science Association's 2006 annual meeting in Philadelphia, Milada Anna Vachudova, assistant professor of political science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was awarded the prize for best paper presented at APSA's 2005 annual meeting by the European Politics and Society organized section for her paper "Democratization and the Leverage of International Actors: Illiberal Regimes and the European Union." She is also the co-winner of the 2006 Marshall Shulman Book Prize for Europe Undivided: Democracy, Leverage and Integration After Communism (Oxford University Press, 2005). She will receive this prize awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies at their annual meeting in November.
Denise Marie Walsh, assistant professor of women's studies, University of Virginia, served as lead editor of a special March 2006 issue of the Journal of South African Studies on "Women and the Politics of Gender in Southern Africa." Ms. Walsh also contributed two articles to the issue: "Altering Politics, Contesting Gender" (with Pamela Scully) and "The Liberal Moment: Women and Just Debate in South Africa, 1994–1996."
Journal of Democracy Discount for CompDem Members
The Johns Hopkins University Press has graciously offered to provide a 20 percent discount off the regular subscription price of the Journal of Democracy to current members of the Comparative Democratization section. To obtain ordering information and the discount code, please contact Melissa Aten (MelissaA@ned.org).
CDACS Announcement: Data from Survey on American Civic Engagement
The Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS) at Georgetown University released the data from the U.S. "Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy" (CID) survey that was conducted in the spring/summer of 2005. The survey presents an unusually broad and deep picture of American civic engagement in comparative perspective. Among other themes, it includes a comprehensive set of questions on the composition and diversity of informal social networks, involvement in voluntary associations, democratic values, and tolerance. A subset of the survey was replicated from the European Social Survey (ESS), thus allowing for comparisons between the U.S. and 22 European countries. The U.S. CID survey was directed by Marc Morjé Howard (Georgetown University), with the assistance of associate directors James L. Gibson (Washington University in St. Louis) and Dietlind Stolle (McGill University).
For more information on the survey, including instructions for downloading the data, see www.uscidsurvey.org. For more on the Center for Democracy and Civil Society (CDACS) at Georgetown University, see http://cdacs.georgetown.edu
CDACS is also pleased to announce the inauguration of its Occasional Papers series. The first Occasional Paper, "Citizenship Norms and Political Participation in America: The Good News Is ... the Bad News Is Wrong," by Professor Russell J. Dalton (UC Irvine), is available at http://cdacs.georgetown.edu/occasionalpapers.htm.
Call for Applications: Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowships
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, D.C.-based National Endowment for Democracy invites applications from candidates throughout the world for fellowships in 2007–2008. Established in 2001, the program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and to enhance their ability to promote democratic change. The program is intended primarily to support activists, practitioners, and scholars from new and aspiring democracies; distinguished scholars from the United States and other established democracies are also eligible to apply. Projects may focus on the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of democratic development and may include a range of methodologies and approaches. A working knowledge of English is an important prerequisite for participation in the program. The application deadline for fellowships in 2006-2007 is Wednesday, November 1, 2006.
Call for Editorial Team Proposals for Politics & Gender
The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association is actively seeking applications for a new editorial team of the Section's peer-reviewed journal, Politics & Gender. The team will be composed of three to five faculty members in this research area, most preferably holding a tenured or tenure-stream position at a college or university anywhere in the world. The term of the editorial team is three years, with a possible extension by the Section for one additional three-year term. More information about the journal and the editorial team is available at http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displaySpecialPage?pageId=50.
Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2007.
Call for Submissions
Kay Lawson and James Meadowcroft, editors of the International Political Science Review (IPSR), encourage members of the Comparative Democratization section to consider submitting articles of interest to an international readership to that journal. The Review seeks to publish material that makes a significant contribution to international political science and that meets the needs of scholars throughout the world who study political phenomena in the contemporary context of increasing international interdependence and global change.
The IPSR reflects the aims and intellectual tradition of its parent body, the International Political Science Association: to foster the creation and dissemination of rigorous political inquiry free of subdisciplinary or other orthodoxy. It welcomes work by scholars who focus on currently controversial themes, employ innovative methods of political analysis, and strive to reach outside the scope of a single culture. Visit http://ipsr.sagepub.com for more information and submission guidelines, or write to the editors directly at klawson@sfsu.edu and jmeadowc@connect.carleton.ca.
Master's Degree Program in Democratic Governance at the University of Cape Town
The Democracy in Africa Research Unit of the University of Cape Town announces the launch of a new postgraduate Honors/M.A. program in democratic governance within the university's department of political studies. The program will combine strong training in basic research methods and social statistics with focused courses on the empirical study of democratic politics. Visit http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/politics/pg/pg.htm for detailed course descriptions and admission requirements. Application information is available at http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/hum/new or by e-mail (aweger@humanities.act.ac.za).
Master's Degree Program in Democracy Studies at Georgetown University The Center for Democracy and the Civil Society and Georgetown University's Department of Government is accepting applications for a master's degree program in democracy studies. Created in fall 2006, the program addresses the diverse needs of a growing population working in the field of democracy promotion, with a specific focus on issues of democracy and development, and on improving the quality of democratic life around the world. Applications for fall 2007 admissions are due February 15, 2007. For additional information visit www.georgetown.edu/centers/cdats/maprogramaims.htm.
Master's Degree Program in Democracy and Democratization at University College London
The Department of Political Science and the School of Public Policy at University College London offers a master's degree program in democracy and democratization. The program focuses on the design and operation of democratic institutions in old and new democracies. Visit www.ucl.ac.uk/spp/teaching/msc-democracy-democratisation/ or write to Sherrill Stroschein (s.stroschein@ucl.ac.uk) for more information.
The Canadian Political Science Association held its annual meeting on June 1–3, 2006, in Toronto. The theme of this year's meeting was "Ethical Governance." More information is available at www.cpsa-acsp.ca/template_e.cfm?folder=conference.
On June 16–17, 2006, epsNet held its plenary conference at the Central European University in Budapest. The theme of this year's meeting was "European in Context: Debating the Project." Scheduled panel topics include the international role of Europe, political parties and the European Union, and democracy and citizenship in Europe. Visit www.epsnet.org/2006/programme.htm for a complete program. Several papers from the conference are also available.
The International Political Science Association held its twentieth World Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, on July 9–13, 2006. The theme of this year's meeting was "Is Democracy Working?" The agenda included panel sessions on the crisis and capacity of democracy; democracy and the new world order; institutional legitimacy, interest representation, and democratic practice; citizen participation; values and identity; public policies, bureaucracies, and the quality of democracy; and theory, knowledge, and crafting better democracies. Visit www.fukuoka2006.com/en/program/program.asp for a final program.
The American Political Science Association held its 102nd annual meeting on August 31–September 3, 2006, in Philadelphia, where participants discussed the theme, "Power Reconsidered." The final program and several papers from the conference are available at www.apsanet.org/section_698.cfm.
The Latin American Political Science Association held its third annual conference on September 4–6, 2006, at the University of Campinas in Săo Paulo, Brazil, where the special theme was "Democracy and Inequalities" in Latin America over the past two decades. For more information about this meeting (in Spanish) visit www.ifch.unicamp.br/alacip.
On November 9–11, 2006, the Northeastern Political Science Association will hold its annual meeting in Boston, where scheduled panel sessions include "Deliberative Democracy," "The EU and Democratization in Southeast Europe," "Islam, Democracy, and Radicalism," and "Nationalism, Liberalism, and Democracy." A preliminary program and registration details are available at http://facpub.stjohns.edu/.
On November 16–19 2006, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies will hold its thirty-eighth national convention in Washington, D.C. Scheduled democracy-related panel sessions include post-communist public opinion, post-Orange Revolution politics in Ukraine, transitions in Albania, democracy and gender, and normalization and democratization in Yugoslavia. A preliminary program and registration information is available at www.fas.harvard.edu/~aaass/.
The African Studies Association will hold its forty-ninth annual meeting on November 16–19, 2006, in San Francisco. Section member (and founding chair) John W. Harbeson of City University of New York is co-chair of this year's program, whose theme is "(Re)Thinking Africa and the World: Internal Reflections, External Responses." Visit www.africanstudies.org/asa_annualmeeting2006.html for a preliminary program.
The Middle East Studies Association will hold its fortieth annual conference on November 18–21, 2006, in Boston. Scheduled panel topics include: "Islamic Politics in Turkey," "Islamic and Islamist Activism," "Recent Elections in the Middle East: The Politics of the Unexpected," "Interpreting the Egyptian Elections of 2005," and "Shaping and Reshaping Lebanon." Visit www.mesa.arizona.edu/annual/current.htm for a preliminary program and registration details.
9. NEW RESEARCH
Journal of Democracy
The October 2006 (Volume 17, no. 3) issue of the Journal of Democracy features a cluster of articles on Latin America, as well as individual articles on electoral revolutions, Pakistan, Belarus, constitutional courts, governance and development, and Arab political pacts. The full texts of selected articles and the tables of contents of all issues are available on the Journal's Web site.
"Favorable Conditions and Electoral Revolutions" by Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik
Over the past decade, a series of "electoral revolutions" has taken place from Slovakia to Kyrgyzstan. Why has this path to democratization been especially common in the postcommunist region?
A "Left Turn" in Latin America?
I. "Populism, Socialism, and Democratic Institutions" by Hector E. Schamis
Progressive politics in Latin America inevitably draws from the legacies of socialism and populism, but these categories are not very useful today. Can we find better tools for differentiating Latin America's "multiple lefts?"
II. "Explaining the Left's Resurgence" by Matthew R. Cleary
As leftist victories accumulate, it becomes increasingly clear that they represent a regional trend. But why is this trend happening now, and how far will it spread?
III. "The Urgent Need for Labor Law Reform" by Christopher Sabatini and Eric Farnsworth
Latin America must find a way to include its newly urbanized informal workers in more regular channels of economic and political participation. Updating outmoded labor laws is a key to accomplishing this task.
IV. "Problems of Success in Chile" by Arturo Valenzuela and Lucia Dammert
Chile's new Socialist president Michelle Bachelet will seek to maintain the country's socioeconomic progress, but her attempt to cure growing alienation from the traditional parties could create a new set of problems.
V. "Colombia Hews to the Path of Change" by Eduardo Posada-Carbó
In reelecting President Alvaro Uribe by a landslide, Colombia's voters opted for continuity. But they chose continuity with an administration that has carried out a major series of policy innovations.
VI. "An Unlikely Comeback in Peru" by Cynthia McClintock
An unexpected winner emerged in Peru's close-fought presidential election. Alan Garía's earlier presidential term was calamitous at best, and yet he may not be the harbinger of a brighter future for Peru's democracy.
"History Repeats Itself in Pakistan" by Husain Haqqani
If there is a common thread running through Pakistan's checkered history, it is the army's perception of itself as the country's only viable institution. As the next parliamentary elections approach, what does the future hold for democratic hopes in Pakistan?
"Constitutional Courts: A Primer for Decision Makers" by Donald L. Horowitz
Courts empowered to overturn legislative acts have spread rapidly in recent years. If carefully designed and limited, constitutional courts may aid democratic consolidation, but if not, they can become objects of political strife, impediments to democracy, and bad influences on legal developments.
"Belarus: Learning from Defeat" by Vitali Silitski
The Belarusian presidential election of March 2006 appeared to be an exercise in meaninglessness, while the protests against manipulation by the Lukashenka regime seemed a study in futility. But appearances can deceive.
"Governance and Development" by Kemal Dervis
Embedding a vibrant market economy into strong democratic political institutions is the best way to ensure that political and economic empowerment play complementary roles in improving the lives of citizens around the world.
Exchange
I. "Arab Political Pacts: An Unlikely Scenario" by Karen Kramer
Middle Eastern realities and scholarship on democratic transitions both suggest that formally negotiated deals between authoritarian rulers and liberal opposition forces are unlikely to provide the path to change in the Arab world.
II. "Mistaking Data for 'Theory'" by Steven A. Cook
We should neither be too hasty to discount the prodemocratic political ferment in the Arab world, nor be fooled into thinking that Islamist groups will play a constructive part in democratic transitions.
Democratization
The June 2006 (Volume 13, no. 3) issue of Democratization is a special issue devoted to "Democratization in the Muslim World: Changing Patterns of Power and Authority."
"Introduction: Forgetting Democratization? Recasting Power and Authority in a Plural Muslim World" by Frédéric Volpi and Francesco Cavatorta
"Authoritarian Persistence, Democratization Theory and the Middle East: An Overview and Critique" by Raymond Hinnebusch
"A Consolidated Patrimonial Democracy? Democratization in Post-Suharto Indonesia" by Douglas Webber
"Political Islam and Malaysian Democracy" by Ben Thirkel-White
"Algeria's Pseudo-Democratic Politics: Lessons for Democratization in the Middle East" by Frédéric Volpi
"Elections under Authoritarianism: Preliminary Lessons from Jordan" by Ellen Lust-Okar
"Faith in Democracy: Islamization of the Iraqi Polity after Saddam Hussein" by Beverley Milton-Edwards
"Islam and Democracy in East Africa" by Jeffrey Haynes
"Islamist Terrorism and the Middle East Democratic Deficit: Political Exclusion, Repression and the Causes of Extremism" by Katerina Dalacoura
Democratization
The August 2006 (Volume 13, no. 4) issue of Democratization features articles on Russia, Namibia, Chile, independent media, and party systems.
"From 'Feckless Pluralism' to 'Dominant Power Politics'? The Transformation of Russia's Party System" by Vladimir Gel'man
"Party Systems in Post-Communist Central Europe: Patterns of Stability and Consolidation" by Paul G. Lewis
"Namibia: Consensus Institutions and Majoritarian Politics" by Oda van Cranenburgh
"The Effects of Circulatory Capitalism on Democratization: Observations from South Africa and Brazil" by Thomas A. Koelble and Edward LiPuma
"The Decline of Citizen Participation in Electoral Politics in Post-Authoritarian Chile" by Ryan E. Carlin
"International Assistance to Promote Independent Media in Transition and Post-Conflict Societies" by Krishna Kumar
"Democracy and the European Union: Matching Means to Standards" by Christopher Lord
SELECTED JOURNAL ARTICLES ON DEMOCRACY
This section features selected articles on democracy that appeared in journals received by the NED's Democracy Resource Center.
African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 105, no. 419, April 2006
"Discomfiture of Democracy? The 2005 Election Crisis in Ethiopia and its Aftermath" by J. Abbink
African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 105, no. 420, July 2006
"Mauritania, August 2005: Justice and Democracy, Or Just Another Coup?" by Boubacar N'Diaye
American Political Science Review, Vol. 100, no. 3, August 2006
"Presidentialism, Electoral Identifiability, and Budget" by Jose Antonio Cheibub
"Optimal Obfuscation: Democracy and Trade Policy" by Daniel Y. Kono
"Why Small, Centrist Third Parties Motivate Policy Divergence by Major Parties" by James Adams and Samuel Merrill, III
Asian Affairs, Vol. XXXVII, no. II, July 2006
"The Phillippines: Fragile Democracy or Strong Republic?" by Paul Dimond
Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Vol. 19, no. 2, June 2006
"Democratic Hegemony and American Hegemony" by Alfredo G. A. Valladăo
"Democracy in the Muslim World" by Saad S. Khan
"Democratic Opportunity in the Arab and Muslim World" by Andrew S. Natsios
"Critical Commentary: The Assumptions of Democracy" by Glen Rangwala
Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 22, no. 1, March 2006
"Transnational Aid for Civil Society Development in Post-Socialist Europe: Democratic Consolidation or a New Imperialism?" by Adam Fagan
Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 39, no. 5, June 2006
"World Separation of Religion and State Into the 21st Century" by Jonathan Fox
"Does the Alternative Vote Foster Moderation in Ethnically Divided Socieities? The Case of Fiji" by Jon Fraenkel and Bernard Grofman
Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 39, no. 7, September 2006
"Differentiating Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: Mixed-Member Majoritarian and Mixed-Member Proportional Systems and Government Expenditures" by Frank C. Thames and Martin S. Edwards
From Movements to Parties in Latin America: The Evolution of Ethnic Politics by Donna Lee Van Cott. Reviewed by Young C. Kim
Capitalism, Democracy, and Welfare: The Changing Nature of Production, Elections, and Social Protection of Modern Capitalism by Torben Iversen. Reviewed by Christopher J. Anderson
The Authoritarian Dynamic by Karen Stenner. Reviewed by Jonathan Weiler
Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 39, no. 8, October 2006
"Comparing Nations and States: Human Rights and Democracy in India" by Caroline Beer and Neil J. Mitchell
Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 28, no. 1, April 2006
"Indonesia Seven Years after Soeharto: Party System Institutionalization in a New Democracy" by Paige Johnson Tan
Current History, Vol. 105, no. 691, May 2006
"The Roots of African Corruption" by Stephen Ellis
"Zimbabwe after Mugabe" by Gideon Maltz
"Rebuilding the Liberian State" by Robert Lloyd
"Nigeria's Defining Moment" by Chinwe Esimai
Current History, Vol. 105, no. 692, September 2006
"The Withering of Philippine Democracy" by Patricio N. Abinales and Donna J. Amoroso
Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 14, no. 2, Spring 2006
"The Armenian Media in Context: Soviet Heritage, the Politics of Transition, Democracy, and the Rule of Law" by Marina Kurkchiyan
East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 20, no. 2, Spring 2006
"Reforming Regional Governance in East Central Europe: Europeanization or Domestic Politics as Usual?" by Conor O'Dwyer
"Anti-Political or Just Anti-Communist? Varieties of Dissidence in East-Central Europe and Their Implications for the Development of Political Society" by Alan Renwick
"Postimperial Democracies: Ideology and Party Formation in Third Republic France, Weiwar Germany, and Post-Soviet Russia" by Stephen E. Hanson
East European Politics and Societies, Vol. 20, no. 3, Summer 2006
"Once upon a Time There Was a Big Party: The Social Bases of the Romanian Communist Party (Part II)" by Catalin Augustin Stoica
Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 58, no. 5, July 2006
"Is the Constitutional Court the Last Bastion in Russia Against the Threat of Authoritarianism?" by Marie-Elisabeth Baudoin
Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85, no. 4, July/August 2006
"The End of the Bush Revolution" by Philip H. Gordon
"Transformational Leadership and U.S. Grand Strategy" by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
International Political Science Review, Vol. 27, no. 2, April 2006
"Transitional Democracy in an Insecure World" by John S. Dryzek
"Corruption, Democracy, and Economic Growth" by A. Cooper Drury, Jonathan Krieckhaus, and Michael Lusztig
"Fascists or Revolutionaries? Left and Right Politics of the Rural Poor" by Leslie E. Anderson
International Political Science Review, Vol. 27, no. 3, July 2006
"Access by Accident: Legitimacy Claims and Democracy Promotion in Authoritarian Central Asia" by Edward Schatz
"Political Participation and Civic Engagement in Kathmandu: An Empirical Analysis with Structural Equations" by Udaya R. Wagle
Journal of Legislative Studies, Vol. 12, no. 2, June 2006
"Party Unity in Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Analysis" by Ulrich Sieberer
Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 44, no. 3, September 2006
"Liberia 2005: An Unusual African Post-Conflict Election" by David Harris
Journal of Politics, Vol. 68, no. 2, May 2006
"Corruption and Trust: Exceptionalism in Asian Democracies?" by Eric C. C. Chang, with Yun-han Chu
"Habitual Voting and Behavioral Turnout" by James H. Fowler
Mediterranean Quarterly, Vol. 17, no, 2, Spring 2006
"Turkey and the European Union" by Donald M. Payne
"Albania: Authoritarianism without Oil" by Fatos Tarifa and Peter Lucas
Middle East Journal, Vol. 60, no. 2, Spring 2006
"The Struggle over Political Order in Egypt: The 2005 Elections" by Yoram Meital
Middle East Policy, Vol. 13, no. 2, Summer 2006
"Shiites in Lebanon: The Key to Democracy" by Abbas William Samii
Middle East Policy, Vol. 13, no. 3, Fall 2006
"Congress and the Arab Heavyweights: Questioning the Saudi and Egyptian Alliances" by David T. Dumke
"Barriers to Federal Democracy in Iraq: Lessons from Yemen" by Stephen Day
Nationalities Papers, Vol. 34, no. 1, March 2006
"A Recurrent Tragedy: Ethnic Cleansing as a Tool of State Building in the Yugoslav Multinational Setting" by Klejda Mulaj
"Contingent Nationalist Dominance: Intra-Serb Challenges to the Serb Democratic Party" by Nina Caspersen
Orbis, Vol. 50, no. 4, Fall 2006
"Global Patterns and Postcommunist Dynamics" by Valerie Bunce
"Building a Democratic Market Society in Hungary" by Béla Greskovits
"'Reformology': The Case of Slovakia" by Katarína Mathernová and Juraj Rencko
"Democratization Without Decommunization in the Balkans" by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
"The Political Economy of Georgia's Rose Revolution" by Vladimer Papava
"Democracy in Georgia Since the Rose Revolution" by Lincoln A. Mitchell
Party Politics, Vol. 12, no, 3, May 2006
"African Phoenix? Explaining the Electoral Performance of the Formerly Dominant Parties in Africa" by John Ishiyama and John James Quinn
"Power and Opposition in the Former Soviet Union: The Communist Parties of Moldova and Russia" by Luke March
"Strategizing Party Adaptation: The Case of the Kuomintang" by Tun-jen Cheng
"The Changing Party of the Institutional Revolution: Electoral Competition and Decentralized Candidate Selection" by Joy Langston
"Authoritarian Determinants of Democratic Party Competition: The Communist Successor Parties in East Central Europe" by Anna Grzymala-Busse
Political Parties and Electoral Change: Party Responses to Electoral Markets edited by Peter Mair, Wolfgang C. Muller and Fritz Plasser. Reviewed by Fraser Duncan
Electoral Systems and Political Transformation in Post-Communist Europe by Sarah Birch. Reviewed by Tim Haughton
Reshaping Social Democracy: Labour and the SPD in the New Century edited by Stephen Haseler and Henning Meyer. Reviewed by Charles Less
Christian Democracy in Latin America: Electoral Competition and Regime Conflicts edited by Scott Mainwaring and Timothy R. Scully. Reviewed by John Peeler
Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 121, no. 2, Summer 2006
"The Rationality of Radical Islam" by Quintan Wiktorowicz and Karl Kaltenthaler
Political Theory, Vol. 34, no. 4, August 2006
"Rhetoric and Public Reasoning: An Aristotelian Understanding of Political Deliberation" by Bernard Yack
"Exclusion for Democracy" by Adam James Tebble
Washington Quarterly, Vol. 29, no. 3, Summer 2006
"Advancing the Freedom Agenda: Time for a Recalibration" by Jennifer Windsor
"Fear of Democracy or Revolution: The Reaction to Andijon" by Fiona Hill and Kevin Jones
SELECTED NEW BOOKS ON DEMOCRACY
ADVANCED DEMOCRACIES
Do Members of Congress Reward Their Future Employers? Evaluating the Revolving Door Syndrome. By Adolfo Santos. University Press of America, 2006. 168 pp.
The Dynamic Dominion: Realignment and the Rise of Two-Party Competition in Virginia, 1945–1980. By Frank B. Atkinson. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 481 pp.
Fighting for Rights: Military Service and the Politics of Citizenship. By Ronald R. Krebs. Cornell University Press, 2006. 265 pp.
Five Days in Philadelphia: 1940, Wendell Wilkie, and the Political Convention That Freed FDR to Win World War II. By Charles Peters. PublicAffairs, 2005. 274 pp.
Hard Power, Soft Power and the Future of Transatlantic Relations. Edited by Thomas L. Ilgen. Ashgate, 2006. 207 pp.
How Voters Decide: Information Processing during Election Campaigns. By Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 344 pp.
Partners at Odds: The Future of Transatlantic Relations—Options for a New Beginning. By Werner Weidenfeld. Verlag Bertelsmann Stiftung, 2006. 187 pp.
The Politics of Free Markets: The Rise of Neoliberal Economic Policies in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. By Monica Prassad. University of Chicago Press, 2006. 328 pp.
The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America. By Marie Gottschalk. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 451 pp.
Quick Hits for Educating Citizens: Successful Strategies by Award-Winning Teachers. Edited by James L. Perry and Steven G. Jones. Indiana University Press, 2006. 136 pp.
Reconstructing the Commercial Republic: Constitutional Design after Madison. By Stephen L. Elkin. University of Chicago Press, 2006. 412 pp.
Schools of Democracy: A Political History of the American Labor Movement. By Clayton Sinyai. Cornell University Press, 2006.
Virginia in the Vanguard: Political Leadership in the 400-Year-Old Cradle of American Democracy, 1981–2006. By Frank B. Atkinson. Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 335 pp.
The West at War: U.S. and European Counterterrorism Efforts, Post-September 11. By Michael Jacobson. Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2006. 139 pp.
What Holds Europe Together? Edited by Krzysztof Michalski. Central European University Press, 2006. 192 pp.
AFRICA
Democracy and Elections in Africa. By Staffan Lindberg. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 248 pp.
Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. By Daniel Posner. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 358 pp.
ASIA
China's Trapped Transition: The Limits of Developmental Autocracy. By Minxin Pei. Harvard University Press, 2006. 294 pp.
Human Beliefs and Values in Striding Asia: East Asia in Focus: Country Profiles, Thematic Analyses, and Sourcebook Based on the AsiaBarometer Survey of 2004. Edited by Takashi Inoguchi, Akihiko Tanaka, Shigeto Sonoda, and Timur Dadabaev. Chuo University, 2006. 579 pp.
Japan's Dual Civil Society: Members Without Advocates. By Robert Pekkanen. Stanford University Press, 2006. 252 pp.
Rising China and Asian Democratization: Socialization to "Global Culture" in the Political Transformations of Thailand, China, and Taiwan. By Daniel C. Lynch. Stanford University Press, 2006. 299 pp.
The Transformation of Chinese Socialism. By Lin Chun. Duke University Press, 2006. 370 pp.
Values and Life Styles in Urban Asia: A Cross-Cultural Analysis and Sourcebook Based on the AsiaBarometer Survey of 2003. Edited by Takashi Inoguchi, Akihiko Tanaka, Shigeto Sonoda, and Timur Dadabaev. Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, 2005. 503 pp. plus CD-ROM.
EASTERN EUROPE AND THE FORMER SOVIET UNION
A Biographical Dictionary of Women's Movements and Feminisms: Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, 19th and 20th Centuries. Edited by Francisca de Haan, Krassimira Daskalova, and Anna Loutfi. Central European University Press, 2006. 678 pp.
Candidate Strategies and Electoral Competition in the Russian Federation: Democracy Without Foundation. By Regina Smyth. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 247 pp.
The Central Asian Economies Since Independence. By Richard Pomfret. Princeton University Press, 2006. 233 pp.
Economic Autonomy and Democracy: Hybrid Regimes in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. By Kelly M. McMann. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 259 pp.
Four Years of Transition in Serbia. Edited by Boris Begović and Boško Mijatović. Center for Liberal-Democratic Studies, 2005. 463 pp.
Owning Russia: The Struggle over Factories, Farms, and Power. By Andrew Barnes. Cornell University Press, 2006. 273 pp.
Resisting the State: Reform and Retrenchment in Post-Soviet Russia. By Kathryn Stoner-Weiss. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 167 pp.
Rotten States? Corruption, Post-Communism & Neoliberalism. By Leslie Holmes. Duke University Press, 2006. 418 pp.
The Struggle of Hungarian Lutherans under Communism. By H. David Baer. Texas A&M University Press, 2006. 160 pp.
Uncertain Path: Democratic Transition and Consolidation in Slovenia. By Rudolf Martin Rizman. Texas A&M University Press, 2006. 240 pp.
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN
Democracia y Ciudadania: Participación Ciudadana y Deliberación Pública en Gobiernos Locales Mexicanos. Edited by Andrew D. Selee and Leticia Santin del Rio. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2006. 256 pp.
Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America. Edited by Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.
Newsrooms in Conflict: Journalism and the Democratization of Mexico. By Sallie Hughes. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. 286 pp.
Redefinición del Espacio Público: Eslabonamiento Conceptual y Seguimiento de las Políticas Públicas en Colombia. Edited by Gabriel Murillo and Victoria Gomez. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2005. 153 pp.
State and Society in Conflict: Comparative Perspectives on Andean Crises. Edited by Paul W. Drake and Eric Hershberg. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. 324 pp.
MIDDLE EAST
Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politics. By Jerome R. Corsi. WND Books, 2005. 302 pp.
Faith in Moderation: Islamist Parties in Jordan and Yemen. By Jillian Schwedler. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 252 pp.
Troubled Waters: Future U.S. Security Assistance in the Persian Gulf. By Michael Knights. Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 2006. 241 pp.
COMPARATIVE, THEORETICAL, GENERAL
Architects of Political Change: Constitutional Quandaries and Social Choice Theory. By Norman Schofield. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 317 pp.
Democracy Past and Future. By Pierre Rosanvallon. Columbia University Press, 2006. 294 pp.
Deterring America: Rogue States and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. By Derek D. Smith. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 197 pp.
Dilemmas of Democracy and Dictatorship: Place, Time, and Ideology in Global Perspective. By Michael S. Radu. Transaction, 2006. 427 pp.
Electoral Systems and Democracy. Edited by Larry Diamond and Marc F. Plattner. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. 245 pp.
Exporting Congress: The Influence of the U.S. Congress on World Legislatures. Edited by Timothy J. Power and Nicol C. Rae. University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. 240 pp.
Fascism and Democracy in the Human Mind: A Bridge Between Mind and Society. By Israel W. Charny. University of Nebraska Press, 2006. 471 pp.
Freedom of Expression and Human Rights: Historical, Literary and Political Contexts. By Liam Gearon. Sussex Academic Press, 2006. 230 pp.
The Global Debate over Constitutional Property: Lessons for American Takings Jurisprudence. By Gregory S. Alexander. University of Chicago Press, 2006. 320 pp.
Global Justice. By Jon Mandle. Polity Press, 2006. 180 pp.
International Relations: The Path Not Taken. By Thomas J. Shoenbaum. Cambridge University Press, 2006. 320 pp.
Law, Politics, and Morality in Judaism. Edited by Michael Walzer. Princeton University Press, 2006. 217 pp.
Models of Democracy. 3rd edition. By David Held. Stanford University Press, 2006. 338 pp.
On Political Equality. By Robert A. Dahl. Yale University Press, 2006. 142 pp.
Political Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide for Students and Politicians. By Adam Swift. Polity, 2006. 240 pp.
The Resources of Critique. By Alex Callinicos. Polity, 2006. 313 pp.
Short of the Goal: U.S. Policy and Poorly Performing States. Edited by Nancy Birdsall, Milan Vaishnav, and Robert L. Ayres. Center for Global Development, 2006. 483 pp.
Strategies for Democratic Change: Assessing the Global Response. Edited by Ted Piccone and Richard Youngs. FRIDE, 2006. 204 pp.
Survey of European Democracy Promotion Policies 2000–2006. Edited by Richard Youngs. FRIDE, 2006. 236 pp.
Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions. By John Foran. Cambridge University Press, 2005. 395 pp.
What's Wrong With Terrorism? By Robert E. Goodin. Polity, 2006. 246 pp.
Who Guards the Guardians and How: Democratic Civil-Military Relations. Edited by Thomas C. Bruneau and Scott D. Tollefson. University of Texas Press, 2006. 317 pp.
Why Leaders Choose War: The Psychology of Prevention. By Jonathan Renshon. Greenwood, 2006. 221 pp.
Women in Parliament: Beyond Numbers. Edited by Azza Karam and Julie Ballington. International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, 2005. 264 pp.
A World Beyond Politics: A Defense of the Nation-State. By Pierre Manent. Princeton University Press, 2006. 216 pp.