Negotiating democracy

by Gretchen Casper

Negotiating Democracy explains why some countries succeed in installing democracy after authoritarian rule and some don't. Professors Casper and Taylor argue that a new democracy is more likely to make progress toward consolidation if negotiations during the transition process are difficult rather than easy. The authors base their research on structured comparisons of the transition processes and elite bargaining in twenty-four nations: Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Iran, Kenya, Liberia, Myanmar, and Romania, where authoritarianism remains; Brazil, Honduras, Nigeria, the Philippines, Sudan, Turkey, and Uganda, which have installed democratic governments; and Argentina, Chile, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, South Korea, Spain, and Uruguay, new democracies that have made progress toward consolidation.