Do political leaders determine whether a polity will receive a democratic future or not? Research and advocates of democracy agree on the significance of political elites for democratization, yet there is a need for a more specific understanding of their role. This book develops a theory of political leadership at the point of nascent statehood to explain the emergence of resilient democracies. It employs four diverse case studies to examine the role of leadership and democratic consolidation. In doing so, the book identifies certain capacities of political leaders at the critical moment of nascent statehood as decisive to the future democratic quality of their state. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, democratization studies, state building, leadership, nationalism, Middle Eastern studies and South Asian studies.

Product Description: Shifting power balances in the world are shaking the foundations of the liberal international order and revealing new fault lines at the intersection of human rights and international security. Will these new global trends help or hinder the world's long struggle for human rights and democracy? The answer depends on the role of five rising democracies—India, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, and Indonesia—as both examples and supporters of liberal ideas and practices...read more

Product Description: Voting in Old and New Democracies examines voting behavior and its determinants based on 26 surveys from 18 countries on five continents between 1992 and 2008. It systematically analyzes the impact on voting choice of factors rooted in the currently dominant approaches to the study of electoral behavior, but adds to this analysis factors introduced or reintroduced into this field by the Comparative National Elections Project (CNEP)―socio-political values, and political communication through media, personal discussion, and organizational intermediaries...read more

Product Description: Democracy and Civil Society in a Global Era addresses challenges to the strengthening of active citizenship. In this highly-structured work, the themes presented are linked to fostering a culture of peace and non-violence, the lessening of fear and insecurity in political, economic, social, and cultural terms inherently detached from the conceptualization of political delineations and physical boundaries, and the ability to live dignified lives...read more

Product Description: This collection presents a nuanced analysis of a wide variety of cases that cover the spectrum of constitutional strategies of accommodation used by multinational states such as Canada, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Although constitutionalism has traditionally been the primary mechanism for facilitating the mutual accommodation of national diversity, there is a need to bridge comparative politics and comparative constitutional law...read more

Product Description: This book presents the most complete set of analytical, normative, and historical discussions of majority decision making to date. One chapter critically addresses the social-choice approach to majority decisions, whereas another presents an alternative to that approach...read more

Product Description: A national constitution or other statute typically specifies restrictions on executive power, often including a limit to the number of terms the chief executive may hold office. In recent decades, however, some presidents of newly established democracies have extended their tenure by various semilegal means, thereby raising the specter—and in some cases creating the reality—of dictatorship...read more

Product Description: The world's democracies cheered as the social movements of the Arab Spring ended the reigns of longstanding dictators and ushered in the possibility of democracy. Yet these unique transitions also fit into a broader pattern of democratic breakthroughs around the globe, where political leaders emerge from the pro-democracy movement that helped affect change...read more

Product Description: The story of liberal democracy over the last half century has been a triumphant one in many ways, with the number of democracies increasing from a minority of states to a significant majority. Yet substantial problems afflict democratic states, and while the number of democratic countries has expanded, democratic practice has contracted...read more

Product Description: Countries at the Crossroads: An Analysis of Democratic Governance evaluates government performance in seventy strategically important countries from across the globe, including emerging market countries and at-risk states. The in-depth comparative analyses and quantitative ratings―examining Accountability and Public Voice, Civil Liberties, Rule of Law, and Anticorruption and Transparency―serve as a valuable tool for public analysts, educators and students, government officials, and the business community...read more