Problems Confronting Contemporary Democracies

What are the consequences of different paths toward democracy? How can religion support democratic diversity? And what ongoing dilemmas do democratic governments face in reining in the armed forces that once ruled? The original essays in Problems Confronting Contemporary Democraciesinvestigate these and other questions, which Alfred Stepan addressed in his pioneering work as one of the most prominent comparative political scientists of the past four decades. The contributors, who came together at a conference in Stepan's honor at Columbia University in 2007, pay tribute to his work and illuminate some of the debates he launched, while advancing understanding of problems facing democracies around the world. The essays in Problems Confronting Contemporary Democraciesdemonstrate the substantive, geographic, and methodological range of Stepan's work by building on many of his major scholarly contributions. Principal themes include authoritarianism, the breakdown of democratic regimes, transitions from authoritarianism to democracy, democratic consolidation, the role of the military in politics, and ways-including the varieties of federalism-to manage conflict democratically in societies that are divided by religious, ethnic, and national cleavages. The contributions range from Latin America to the post-Soviet regions, Iran, China, Turkey, Israel, Spain and Portugal, and the United States. This volume will appeal to students and scholars of political science, sociology, and international studies, particularly Latin American and Middle Eastern studies. "Through critical and enthusiastic engagement with the wide-ranging contributions of Alfred Stepan, a leading agenda setter in comparative social science for the last forty years, the contributors offer cutting-edge essays on the most pressing problems facing democracies across the world today. The geographical scope of the volume, like the work of Stepan itself, is especially impressive, as is its cross-generational coalition of contributors that includes very distinguished senior scholars and 'scholar-politicians' as well as some promising younger scholars who are now starting to make their mark in the field." - Richard Snyder, Brown University