Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America Edition: 2 [Paperback]

Larry Diamond (Editor), Jonathan Hartlyn (Editor), Juan Linz (Editor), Seymour Martin Lipset (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 520 pages
• Publisher: Lynne Rienner Pub; 2nd edition (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555877982
• ISBN-13: 978-1555877989
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #554,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent study in Democracy, April 29, 2000

By 

Stoyanov (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America Edition: 2 (Paperback)

I highly recommend this book for anyone who studies political science, democracy, or is simply interested in Latin America. It is an excelent scholarly work, which defines democracy (using Robert Dahl's definition) and defines the criteria, and then each individual essay gives a complete case study and rates it next to the criteria and definition. This book excludes countries with little or no expirience with democracy or limited democracy, such as Cuba, and Central America (with the exception of Costa Rica). The countries that are analyzed are: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, and Mexico. I would be hesitant to recommend this book as an introduction to the subject. Though this work establishes a clear context and frame of reference in which every country is being analyzed, it can sometimes be dry reading, but the extent of expert analysis that went into this work is overwhelming. This book would be a great starting point for any detailed research into Latin American politics, or would be a great read for any student of comaparative studies in Democracy. As an introduction to political sciene or Latin America, however, this book might be ill-suited, I would recommend reading some of Robert Dahl's works first, or Richard S. Hillman's "Understanding Contemporary Latin America". These are not required, but recommended in my opinion. But, it is still a great work and I consider it to be an essential work on the topic.