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Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán , Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2014), pp. xiv + 353, £55.00, £19.99 pb; $85.00, $29.99 pb.
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The dramatic evolution of political regimes since the end of World War II has made the study of democracy and dictatorship not only one of the most venerable areas of inquiry within comparative politics, but also one of the most crowded. This makes Mainwaring and Pérez-Liñán's path-breaking book, Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall, all the more impressive. Their book makes major, novel contributions not only to the study of political regime transitions in Latin America, but also to general theory on democratisation, democratic breakdown and the quality of democracy, as well as to the study of how international factors impact domestic regime changes. It thus places itself as a landmark in the field and a clear must-read to students of political regimes.
The most innovative aspect of the book, and what sets it apart in the literature, is the construction of a 'mid-range' theory of regime transitions. That is, the analysis, variables, and causal mechanisms are situated between long-term structural factors that impact regime transitions such as modernisation, class structures and political culture (espoused by authors such as Lipset, Moore and Boix) and actor-centric contingent decisions in key moments of uncertainty (which figure prominently in the work of O'Donnell and Schmitter, Linz, Karl and Kuran). This tack enables the construction of a new set of variables, normative preferences about regimes and the radicalism of policy preferences, that take centre stage in the theory as key determinants of regime type along with international actors and influences. Normative preferences and policy radicalism are...