The Making and Unmaking of Democracy: Lessons from History and World Politics

The promotion of democracy is an urgent issue for the citizens of every country. But how does democracy spread, and what can be done to sustain it? Under what conditions is democracy undermined? In The Making and Unmaking of Democracy, eminent authorities from the fields of political science and history discuss political thought and practice from ancient Athens to the contemporary Middle East in order to answer these questions, and to develop and historical and geographical outline of the development of democracy. Throughout their debate, the contributors identify several key factors by which to assess democratic institutions wherever and whenever they arise: the influence of past regimes, international political pressure, and economic conditions. What emerges for the reader of this broad and remarkable collection of new essays is a heightened level of understanding of the spectrum of possibilities at work in democratic regimes -- a knowledge that is essential for the promotion of democracy and, further, to an understanding of the meaning of globalization. Book jacket.

Theodore K. Rabb is a Professor of History at Princeton University. A historian of early modern Europe, he is the founder and co-editor of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History and a regular contributor to the New York Times and the Times Literary Supplement Ezra N. Suleiman is IBM Professor of International Studies and Founding Director of the European Studies Center at Princeton University