The recent replacement of authoritarian rule by democracy in both South Africa and El Salvador poses a puzzle: why did the powerful, anti-democratic elites of these countries abandon death squads, apartheid, and the other tools of political repression and take a chance on democracy? Forging Democracy From Below shows how popular mobilization--in El Salvador an effective guerilla army supported by peasant collaboration and in South Africa a powerful alliance of labor unions and poor urban dwellers--forced the elite to the bargaining table, and why a durable settlement and democratic government were the result.
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"Sharp-eyed, sure-handed, and knowledgeable, Elisabeth Wood makes a compelling case for the contribution of popular insurgency to democratization. As she pursues it, the unlikely comparison of El Salvador and South Africa yields important and unexpected returns." Chuck Tilly, Columbia University
"Elisabeth Wood has written the single best theoretical explanation of how the enemies in a vicious civil war can agree on a negotiated settlement and move toward political democracy. It marks a major step forward in our understanding of such conflicts. Her skill at using statistical analysis, formal theory, and anthropological fieldwork to confront important theoretical and policy problems is in the best tradition of contemporary social science." Roy Licklider, Rutgers University
"This analytically systematic study blends sound theory and fieldwork. It is an important testament to the utility of rigorous comparative analysis in advancing our understanding of democratic transitions in otherwise markedly dissimilar countries." International Journal of African History
"Elisabeth Wood's rigorous study of individual motivations and mobilization in El Salvador will be required reading for students of collective action and civil war. Her unique combination of rich ethnography and rigorous theory represents social science at its best." Stathis N. Kalyvas, Yale University
"This book addresses an absolutely fundamental question in both social history and the study of revolutions: Under what circumstances and with what motivations do rural people mobilize collectively to achieve change? Building on ethnographic fieldwork and oral histories, Wood argues that the actions of rural people in El Salvador constituted an 'assertion of citizenship' not reducible to any calculation of the probability of altering outcomes or achieving exclusive benefits. With a delicate sense of social process, she demonstrates the 'pleasures of agency' that were possible even in the shadow of civil war. This is an elegant, important, and inspiring study." Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan
"Wood shares with us the voices and experiences of Salvadorans who, most extraordinarily, were interviewed in large numbers over many years and with amazing diligence and intensity by the author, despite their contemporary involvements in a hideously violent civil war. Particularly notable is her careful, even meticulous, discussion of the problems of establishing "real" memories in such a setting. She is also good, very good, at dissecting debates about collective action theories and theories of revolution. And the discussions about the social import of mapmaking are just flat out lovely, and feel so very human, which is (alas) not something you can say very often about a work of sophisticated social science. While her own discipline is political science, she draws on and herself surely enriches the fields of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and Latin American studies writ large." Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Georgetown University
"Elisabeth Wood has written the single best theoretical explanation of how the enemies in a vicious civil war can agree on a negotiated settlement and move toward political democracy. It marks a major step forward in our understanding of such conflicts. Her skill at using statistical analysis, formal theory, and anthropological fieldwork to confront important theoretical and policy problems is in the best tradition of contemporary social science." Roy Licklider, Rutgers University
"This analytically systematic study blends sound theory and fieldwork. It is an important testament to the utility of rigorous comparative analysis in advancing our understanding of democratic transitions in otherwise markedly dissimilar countries." International Journal of African History
"Elisabeth Wood's rigorous study of individual motivations and mobilization in El Salvador will be required reading for students of collective action and civil war. Her unique combination of rich ethnography and rigorous theory represents social science at its best." Stathis N. Kalyvas, Yale University
"This book addresses an absolutely fundamental question in both social history and the study of revolutions: Under what circumstances and with what motivations do rural people mobilize collectively to achieve change? Building on ethnographic fieldwork and oral histories, Wood argues that the actions of rural people in El Salvador constituted an 'assertion of citizenship' not reducible to any calculation of the probability of altering outcomes or achieving exclusive benefits. With a delicate sense of social process, she demonstrates the 'pleasures of agency' that were possible even in the shadow of civil war. This is an elegant, important, and inspiring study." Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan
"Wood shares with us the voices and experiences of Salvadorans who, most extraordinarily, were interviewed in large numbers over many years and with amazing diligence and intensity by the author, despite their contemporary involvements in a hideously violent civil war. Particularly notable is her careful, even meticulous, discussion of the problems of establishing "real" memories in such a setting. She is also good, very good, at dissecting debates about collective action theories and theories of revolution. And the discussions about the social import of mapmaking are just flat out lovely, and feel so very human, which is (alas) not something you can say very often about a work of sophisticated social science. While her own discipline is political science, she draws on and herself surely enriches the fields of sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, and Latin American studies writ large." Timothy Wickham-Crowley, Georgetown University
Book Description
The recent replacement of authoritarian rule by democracy in both South Africa and El Salvador poses a puzzle: why did the powerful, anti-democratic elites of these countries abandon death squads, apartheid, and the other tools of political repression and take a chance on democracy? Forging DemocracyFrom Below shows how popular mobilization--in El Salvador an effective guerilla army supported by peasant collaboration and in South Africa a powerful alliance of labor unions and poor urban dwellers--forced the elite to the bargaining table, and why a durable settlement and democratic government were the result.
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Recommend reading it. Excellent source of background...,
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This review is from: Forging Democracy from Below: Insurgent Transitions in South Africa and El Salvador (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) (Paperback)
...information on the civil wars that took place in both countries. Explain theory of transition to democracy from below using the "most different" method (using two unlike countries that had a similar transition).
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As the civil war in El Salvador drew to a close, peasants allied with the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, FMLN) throughout the province of Usulutan raced to consolidate their claims to de facto property rights, enclosing occupied properties with barbed wire, taking over additional properties, and patrolling boundaries against the return of the erstwhile landlords. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
first inclusive elections, insurgent path, conflicted zones, antecedent regime, oligarchic societies, recalcitrant elites, elite economic interests, sustained insurgency, oligarchic alliance, conservative modernization, hardline elements, regime elites, oligarchic society, campesino organizations, forging democracy, counterinsurgency measures, status quo distribution, apartheid economy, labor repression Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South Africa, National Party, United States, New York Accord, World War, Anglo American, Nelson Mandela, San Salvador, Central American, United Nations, Latin America, National Guard, Freedom Charter, Barlow Rand, Christian Democrats, Costa Rica, Democratic Party, Soviet Union, William Stanley, World Bank, Youth League, African National Congress, Alfredo Cristiani, Chamber of Mines, Cooperativa California New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
As the civil war in El Salvador drew to a close, peasants allied with the Frente Farabundo Marti para la Liberacion Nacional (Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation, FMLN) throughout the province of Usulutan raced to consolidate their claims to de facto property rights, enclosing occupied properties with barbed wire, taking over additional properties, and patrolling boundaries against the return of the erstwhile landlords. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
first inclusive elections, insurgent path, conflicted zones, antecedent regime, oligarchic societies, recalcitrant elites, elite economic interests, sustained insurgency, oligarchic alliance, conservative modernization, hardline elements, regime elites, oligarchic society, campesino organizations, forging democracy, counterinsurgency measures, status quo distribution, apartheid economy, labor repression Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
South Africa, National Party, United States, New York Accord, World War, Anglo American, Nelson Mandela, San Salvador, Central American, United Nations, Latin America, National Guard, Freedom Charter, Barlow Rand, Christian Democrats, Costa Rica, Democratic Party, Soviet Union, William Stanley, World Bank, Youth League, African National Congress, Alfredo Cristiani, Chamber of Mines, Cooperativa California New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 88
books:
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20
books
cite this book:
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- A History of South Africa, Third Edition by Leonard Thompson on 4 pages
- The Oxford History of South Africa: by Monica Wilson on 4 pages
- From Protest to Challenge: Documentary History of African Politics Vol 1 by Thomas Karis in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Decade of War by Anjali Sundaram in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- Transitions from Authoritarian Rule, Vol. 4: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies by Guillermo O'Donnell in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
See all 88 books this book cites
- Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) by Elisabeth Jean Wood in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) by James Mahoney on page 38, and Back Matter
- Committing to Peace: The Successful Settlement of Civil Wars by Barbara F. Walter on page 111, and Back Matter
- Deliberate Discretion?: The Institutional Foundations of Bureaucratic Autonomy (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) by John D. Huber in Back Matter
- Regressive Taxation and the Welfare State: Path Dependence and Policy Diffusion (Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics) by Junko Kato in Back Matter
See all 20 books citing this book
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