FREE delivery February 16 - 23. Details

Or fastest delivery February 14 - 16. Details

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$28.96 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Books'r us (We ship worldwide!)

Ships from

Books'r us (We ship worldwide!)

Sold by

Books'r us (We ship worldwide!)

Sold by

Books'r us (We ship worldwide!)

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

$3.99 delivery February 20 - 26. Details

Or fastest delivery February 15 - 21. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by midtownscholarbookstore

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Follow the author

Arend Lijphart

Follow

Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries Paperback – July 11, 1999

by Arend Lijphart (Author)

4.5 147 ratings

See all formats and editions

There is a newer edition of this item:

Patterns of Democracy: Government Forms and Performance in Thirty-Six Countries
$24.00
(147)
Only 12 left in stock (more on the way).

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$28.96","priceAmount":28.96,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"28","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"96","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"UKY2ODui1GFm%2FaORNTJhhmrr%2FjoLshVH6tqLuZPFhntJBO5CEy9H1M%2BicYCQY4l0VCDm67CHn1aMLvHwMSjVZqSmJs8XqJ%2BgcRXc3zytSZj4w2olvS0I2ZP9YAXLf24tt9RkUIabXV0bEkjxgOqLZsBfT0mgw6lhxqYVIGu5z0udIWsCTH4oNw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$0.95","priceAmount":0.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"0","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"UKY2ODui1GFm%2FaORNTJhhmrr%2FjoLshVHOtboxJZjYkCtMMSmVTefQoTbVP875k09pcuWH7DUIA9SjDBIB9lY2Aw36pwoak21vlr71w5FrKtoIi%2B9ORJ9s6JJi%2B3KPrvwyR93zbLn%2FTcsyotg1EpGgW3UuqvjSPQHGiHF%2BuZsarA%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

In this updated and expanded edition of his classic text, Arend Lijphart offers a broader and deeper analysis of worldwide democratic institutions than ever before. Examining thirty-six democracies during the period from 1945 to 2010, Lijphart arrives at important—and unexpected—conclusions about what type of democracy works best.

Praise for the previous edition:

"Magnificent. . . . The best-researched book on democracy in the world today."—Malcolm Mackerras,American Review of Politics

"I can't think of another scholar as well qualified as Lijphart to write a book of this kind. He has an amazing grasp of the relevant literature, and he's compiled an unmatched collection of data."—Robert A. Dahl, Yale University

"This sound comparative research . . . will continue to be a standard in graduate and undergraduate courses in comparative politics."—Choice

Print length

368 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Yale University Press
Publication date

July 11, 1999
Dimensions

5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches
ISBN-10

0300078935
ISBN-13

978-0300078930
See all details

Frequently bought together

$28.96

Get it Feb 16 - 23

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Ships from and sold by Books'r us (We ship worldwide!).

+

Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy

$37.68

Get it as soon as Monday, Feb 19

Only 3 left in stock - order soon.

Sold by DeSa Books US and ships from Amazon Fulfillment.

+

Paradigms and Sand Castles: Theory Building and Research Design in Comparative Politics (Analytical Perspectives On Politics)

$24.95

Get it as soon as Monday, Feb 19

In Stock

Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Try again!

Details

Added to Cart

Some of these items ship sooner than the others.

Show details Hide details

Choose items to buy together.

Patrick H. O'Neil
105
Paperback
12 offers from $46.43
Alexis de Tocqueville
489
Paperback
136 offers from $2.39
Robert H. Bates
27
Paperback
34 offers from $1.73
Milan W. Svolik
45
Paperback
29 offers from $14.85
Gene Sharp
180
Paperback
40 offers from $2.94
Daron Acemoglu
8,315
Paperback
77 offers from $6.34

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Yale University Press (July 11, 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0300078935
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0300078930
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.23 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1 x 8.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,015,934 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #524 in Political Reference
- #2,604 in Democracy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 147 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Arend Lijphart

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

147 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Carlos Alborta

Clear and well written

Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2015

Verified Purchase

This is a book recommended by the University of London in their Political Science undergraduate course. I found it well written, clear and easy to go about. There is a conceptual difference between majoritarian and consensus types of democracies that are very distinctively spelled out. You go through the Westminster model, and related types, all the way through the consensual model whereby Switzerland democracy is fully studied. Cabinet decision making and the intricacies of the Central Banks are scrutinized under the two models proposed. The data presented is updated. I read it on my kindle, and underlined the most prominent parts.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Great book! Fast shipping.

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

Great book! Fast shipping.

Helpful

M.P. Arsenault

Testing Institutional Performance

Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2005

Verified Purchase

Lijphart seeks to test which type of democratic institutions - consensus or majoritarian - performs most effectively. He tests the performance of these institutions through a statistical analysis of their relative efficiency in three broad fields: macroeconomic management, control of violence, and what he terms the "kinder and gentler" qualities of democracy (293). However, before discussing the results of Lijphart's study, it is necessary to explore what distinguishes the institutions of majoritarian and consensus systems.

Lijphart distinguishes between these two types of democracy by illustrating ten institutional differences which divide the typologies. For clarity, the author divides these ten differences into two distinct dimensions: executives-parties, and federal-unitary. The executives-parties dimension addresses "the arrangement of executive power, the party and electoral systems, and interest groups" (3). The federal-unitary dimension illustrates differences in institutional structure of a federated versus unitary government.

According to the executives-parties dimension, the majoritarian system, or Westminster model, is found to have a two party system and a strong one-party executive and cabinet. Often the executive is more powerful than his or her legislative counterparts. Furthermore, a majoritarian system often uses a single member district electoral system which can lead to disproportional representation, and has a highly competitive pluralist interest group system. Lijphart cites Britain and pre-1996 New Zealand as majoritarian systems.

Lijphart's consensus democracy varies institutionally from the Westminster model. First, under the majoritarian model, the executive office is often composed of a multi-party power-sharing cabinet or coalition. In addition, power-sharing exists between the executive branch and the legislature the electoral system often promotes proportional representation. Lastly, unlike the highly competitive special interest group system of the Westminster model, a consensus democracy promotes a system of interest group compromise (4). Lijphart uses Switzerland and Germany as examples of consensus democracy.

According to the federated-unitary dimension, the Westminster system has a strong, centralized government and a unicameral legislature. In addition, most majoritarian systems possess a very flexible constitution that can readily be amended or changed. Furthermore, in many majoritarian systems, the legislature holds the final word in the constitutionality of legislation, and as such, majoritarian systems do not have a strong system of judicial review.

The consensus model, on the other hand, often has a decentralized government, and can be a federated system. Often the legislature is divided into two houses. In addition, the constitution is often rigid, making change difficult. Lastly, the consensus system often has a strong institution of judicial review to monitor the legality of legislation.

To test the effectiveness of consensus and majoritarian systems, Lijphart compares the performance of the two democracies on three main categories: macroeconomic management, levels of political violence, and the "kinder, gentler" aspects of democracy. Lijphart's hypothesis "is that consensus democracy produces better results - but without the expectation that the differences will be very strong and significant" (261).

When exploring the effectiveness of the two democracies in macroeconomic management, the author operationalizes a number of variables. For the sake of brevity, I will condense the findings into six categories: economic growth, inflation rates, unemployment, strike activity, budget deficits, and freedom index. Lijphart tests the performance of the democracies by using both the executives-parties dimension and federated-unitary dimensions.

In the case of economic growth using the executives-parties dimension, there was little difference between majoritarian and consensus democracy. There was a weak negative relationship between consensus democracy and economic but the findings were not statistically significant. This implies that the difference between consensus and majoritarian democracies in regards to economic development is negligible. In regards to inflation, Lijphart finds that consensus democracies have a slightly lower rate of inflation than majoritarian systems. Consensus also performs slightly better than the majoritarian model in regards to unemployment, but again, the differences are slight.

Interestingly, Lijphart found a massive relationship between strike activity and consensus democracy. According to the regression coefficient, levels of strike activity would have been substantially lower in consensus systems than in majoritarian. However, upon further analysis the relationships are not statistically significant and as Lijphart illustrates, the large difference is a result of "big exceptions to the tendency of consensus countries to be less strike-prone than majoritarian democracies" (269). Lastly, Lijphart explores the performance of consensus democracies on budget deficits and economic freedom. Again, the author finds the differences negligible. When using the federated-unitary dimension, Lijphart's finding are similar except when looking at the inflation variable. When comparing consensus democracy on federal-unitary dimension on inflation, Lijphart discovers that a strong negative relationship exists, the relationship is statistically significant, and there is an acceptable t-value. The author explains this relationship by citing that in a consensus democracy the central bank independence. Lijphart writes, "the most important reason why central banks are made strong and independent is to give them the tools to control inflation" (273).

In conclusion, the author writes, "the evidence with regard to economic growth and economic freedom is mixed, but with regard to all of the other indicators of economic performance, the consensus democracies have a slightly better record and a significantly better record as far as inflation is concerned" (270).

The results regarding the performance of consensus and majoritarian democracies in controlling political violence are also rather vague. Statistically, the consensus system is slightly violent than the majoritarian system. However, Lijphart contends that the significance of the relationship declines when other variables are controlled and outlying observations are removed. Ultimately, Lijphart contends that the statistics show "at least a slightly better performance of the consensus democracies" (271).

The last group of variables that Lijphart addresses is what he terms the "kinder, gentler" aspects of democracy. The author contends that consensus systems are more apt to be "kinder and gentler" than their majoritarian counterparts. Lijphart writes, "Consensus democracies demonstrate these kinder and gentler qualities in the following ways: they are more likely to be welfare states; they have a better record with regard to the protection of the environment; they put fewer people in prison, and are less likely use the death penalty; and the consensus democracies in the developed world are more generous with their economic assistance to the developing nations" (275-6).

Lijphart measures the effectiveness of consensus intuitions by measuring a number of variables: women's representation, political equality, electoral participation, satisfaction with democracy, government-voter proximity, and accountability and corruption. Statistically, Lijphart's findings when comparing the performance of consensus and majoritarian democracies in regards to the "kinder and gentler" qualities are much more revealing. Lijphart finds that consensus democracy "makes a big difference with regard to almost all of the indicators of democratic quality and with regard to all of the kinder and gentler qualities" (300).

To conclude, Lijphart has found that the institutions of consensus democracies perform slightly better than majoritarian institutions in both macroeconomic management and in the prevention of political violence. However, the differences are slim and arguably irrelevant. But, Lijphart did discover that when looking at the "kinder, gentler" aspects of democracy, such as women's rights, incarceration rates and other, consensus democracy performed substantially better.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

ali akbar

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2017

great book

Great Work of Political Science

Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2016

The book explains the essence of democracy and all its main facets. There is a strong sense of structure in the text. The author brings forth the two different types of democracy: majoritarian and consensus - and introduces the readers to the 36 democracies he uses in his case studies, examples, and as his correlational back-pins. Each of the chapters speak on a certain facet of democracy (cabinets, electoral systems, interest groups, etc.) and compares and contrasts how they look like under the two different types of democracy.

The only flaw would be that sometimes statistic after statistic and example after example would be thrown at you and sometimes that made the reading less enjoyable then it could have been. Otherwise, I loved reading it and I thought that democracy was explained very well. The author maintained objectivity and was very considerate in his analysis.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Excellent book written in plain yet intriguing languages

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2014

Excellent book written in plain yet intriguing languages; interesting to read and easy to understand by a layman of political science like me. Very convincing arguments and conclusions based on solid data. Highly recommended to anyone interested in improving the democratic institutions of an existing democracy or building a lasting democracy in a country in transition to democracy, where consensus democracy is definitely the best way to go! See the divisive elections in Kenya, Afganistan, Indonesia, etc.? How much better things would have been had the institution designers of these countries read this book before choosing the pattern of democracy for their countries.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Essential Reading for Comparative Political Studies

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2002

This revision of Lijphart's Classic 'Democracies' is a first-rate survey of 36 democracies, which focuses on the relationships between a number of political variables. One of the most striking features of the book is the manner in which Lijphart divides the book into 10 areas of inquiry (e.g. electoral systems, party formations, executive power, etc.), devoting one chapter per area. He reviews the theory regarding the area of interest, while also attempting to use applied examples from the 36 countries to illustrate that theory. He then tries to construct rough numerical indices to outline more formally the degree and extent to which qualitative differences exist. This helps in conceptualizing how (dis)similar two countries are with respect to one another.
The other outstanding aspect of the book is that by the end, the reader is broadly familiar with the structure of all 36 democracies. You walk away understanding how diverse the party formations of federal Germany are, or how UK Commonwealths tend to mirror their colonial power in terms of parliamentary power, centralisation of power, and so forth.
Because of its lucid and and pragmatic structure, as well as its strong comparative approach, I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning more about what features differentiate democracies and why France is or is not similar to Japan or Paupa New Guinea--an excellent study by a classic thinker!

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

kassidy palmateer

I want no social distance from this book

Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2020

Verified Purchase

I wish you could take the feeling in my heart for your book and put it into words.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English

José Paulo Crema

Material sem defeitos. Chegou na data combinada.

Reviewed in Brazil on February 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

Boa.

Translate review to English

Alvaro Hernando Fraile

Bien

Reviewed in Spain on January 9, 2020

Verified Purchase

Es lo que necesitaba. Buena relación calidad-precio

Translate review to English

IGM

Un libro referencial para cualquier estudiante o experto en Ciencia Política y RRII

Reviewed in Mexico on February 3, 2018

Verified Purchase

Una de las grandes obras de la ciencia política de las ultimas décadas. Es un estudio de 36 democracias a lo largo de los años, destacando las diferencias en materia electoral, forma de gobierno, cultura política, independencia de los poderes dle Estado..etc

El único error que le veo, es que las conclusiones son bastante limitadas y tímidas. Da la impresión de que el autor podría haber sido más ambicioso. En todo caso, un gran manual sobre la democracia en el mundo.

One person found this helpful

Translate review to English

Geser

Review

Reviewed in Italy on December 6, 2018

Verified Purchase

The book came with a minor dirt, but overall good!

J M T Hackett

A fantastic book that has spurred my understanding and interest in ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 25, 2016

Verified Purchase

This was my first real political science book, and although I had a shallow understanding of the background issues (voting systems, central banks, examples of legislative chambers, presential systems, etc) I had never seen them arranged in a coherent way. This book has enriched my understanding of all the subjects it deals with which I knew before, and opened my eyes to issues and points of detail I had never imagined. Lijphart's dimensions and their respective chapters illuminate each subject in turn while successfully placing them in the author's intended context.

A fantastic book that has spurred my understanding and interest in political science further than anything else I've ever read.

See more reviews

Image Unavailable

Follow the author