Democratization : The state of the art

Problems of democratization, its successes, failures and future prospects, belong to the most pressing concerns of our times. Empirical democratic theory has received many new impulses since the last "wave" of democratization in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Southeast and East Asia. In this volume the "state of the art" in this respect is discussed by leading international experts in this field including Laurence Whitehead, Gerardo Munck, Axel Hadenius and Juan Linz. It is based on the work and a series of panels and conferences organized by the Research Committee on "Democratization in Comparative Perspective" of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) since its foundation in 1988 by Tatu Vanhanen and Dirk Berg-Schlosser. The concepts and findings presented are of high relevance both for political science and practical politics.