Is Democracy Exportable?

Can democratic states transplant the seeds of democracy into developing countries? What have political thinkers going back to the Greek city-states thought about their capacity to promote democracy? How can democracy be established in divided societies? This books answers these and other fundamental questions behind the concept known as 'democracy promotion.' Following an illuminating concise discussion of what political philosophers from Plato to Montesquieu thought about the issue, the authors explore the structural preconditions (culture, divided societies, civil society) as well as the institutions and processes of democracy building (constitutions, elections, security sector reform, conflict, and trade). Along the way they share insights about what policies have worked, which ones need to be improved or discarded, and, more generally, what advanced democracies can do to further the cause of democratization in a globalizing world. In other words, they seek answers to the question, Is democracy exportable?

Zoltan Barany is Frank C. Erwin, Jr., Professor of Government at the University of Texas and the author of, most recently, Democratic Breakdown and the Decline of the Russian Military (2007), The Future of NATO Expansion (2003), and The East European Gypsies (2001). Robert G. Moser is Associate Professor of Government at the University of Texas and the author of Unexpected Outcomes: Electoral Systems, Political Parties and Representation in Russia (2001). His articles have appeared in World Politics, Comparative Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Electoral Studies, and Post-Soviet Affairs. He is currently writing a book entitled Mixed Electoral Systems in New and Established Democracies with Ethan Scheiner.