Content area
Full Text
From Voting to Violence, Democratization and Nationalist Conflict. By Jack Snyder. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. 382 pages. $29.95. Reviewed by David C. Bennett, Professor of International Relations, Department of National Security and Strategy, US Army War College.
In over 350 pages of extensively footnoted text, Professor Jack Snyder provides thought-provoking theories about the post-Cold War opportunities for advancing democracy. Using a time-tested methodology, Snyder employs historical case studies to support his arguments, applies his theories to contemporary examples, and concludes with strategies to avert nationalist conflict.
The author's thesis appears early and is clearly stated: successful enlargement of the community of democratic nations will foster a more peaceful era in world politics. Yet the author believes the journey toward this enlargement is fraught with risk, as nations in transition will continue to create fertile conditions for nationalist and ethnic conflict, redirecting popular political participation into antidemocratic detours.
Snyder defines nationalism "as the doctrine that a people who see themselves as distinct in their culture, history, institutions, or principles should rule themselves in a political system that expresses and protects those distinctive characteristics." His analysis...