Review by Choice Review
Three experts on democracy, capitalism, and economic development bring extensive research and varied regional insights, drawn from seven years of intellectual exchange begun at the Center for the Comparative Study of Development at Brown University, to one of the most interesting questions of the 1990s: What happens to democracy as capitalist development moves from introduction, transition, and advanced stages? Building on the sociological method of comparative historical analysis and cross-national quantitative data, the authors consider European, Latin American, Central American, and Caribbean cases. The study retraces the big questions of the "social origins of dictatorship and democracy" introduced by Barrington Moore decades ago. This is an especially timely work as both the developing Third World nations and former Second World countries of the socialist bloc race to simultaneously implement both democracy and capitalism, but discover that a "favorable historical constellation of conditions," essential for success, is not always present. Conceptualizing democracy as primarily power, the study considers the balance of internal and transnational power relations, and concludes that, ironically, the contradictions of capitalism served to empower and democratize society. More integrated and up-to-date than the extensive, four-part work, Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, ed. by Guillermo O'Donnell et al. (CH, Jun'87). Recommended especially for all academic and research libraries. W. Q. Morales; University of Central Florida
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
