Undoing Democracy

Reviews / Votes

Free and fair elections do not always lead to greater democratization, as this important and readable collection demonstrates. Although the book focuses on Nicaragua, by extension it shows why increasing numbers of citizens in "Third Wave" democracies have become disillusioned with their political systems. Those who think that democratization is a one-way street should read the powerful evidence collected here; left and right can collaborate to emasculate democracy. -- Mitchell A. Seligson, Vanderbilt University Undoing Democracy is an articulate and carefully constructed collection of essays on the process of decomposition and reversal to authoritarianism in post-Sandinista Nicaragua. The merit of the collection goes beyond the systematic analysis of the pitfalls of the notion of "democratic transition" in one of the so-called "third wave" democracies. Undoing Democracy offers profound theoretical contributions to an emerging critical strand of comparative analysis, challenging many of the assumptions and ideological fallacies regarding contemporary democracy, liberalism, globalization and democratization in an era of unilateralism. -- Jorge Nef, University of South Florida This close-up look at democratic decomposition offers a valuable corrective to the simplifying assumptions of an earlier 'transitions to democracy' literature. Comparativists will appreciate the spadework of these knowledgeable country specialists who extract the lessons of Nicaragua's strange odyssey, wherein a revolutionary path to democracy turned into an electoral path to strongman rule. An important cautionary tale of how neoliberal economics and clientelistic habits of the political class derailed incipient democratization. -- Richard Stahler-Sholk, Eastern Michigan University Undoing Democracy, filled with strong contributions from noted Nicaragua experts, provides an invaluable record of the erosion of democracy during the Aleman administration. It reveals how re-emergent caudillo politics and the Liberal-Sandinista pact undermined Nicaragua's democratic substance despite the retention of democratic forms. This is a must-read for anyone interested in Nicaragua and the fate of Third-Wave democracies. -- John A. Booth, University of North Texas Undoing Democracy is a rare, lucidly written, and coherently edited analysis of post-revolutionary Nicaraguan politics. -- Shelley A. McConnell, Senior Associate Director of the Americas Program at The Carter Center This important collection of ten articles focused on the administration of Arnoldo Aleman reminds us that there is nothing automatic or unidirectional about the transition to democracy. -- Judith Adler Hellman, York University; author of The World of Mexican Migrants Even though the empirical examples in Undoing Democracy deal with Nicaragua in the late 1990s, the theoretical insights in this book can be applied and tested in other parts of the world, from fledgling and aspiring democracies (such as Iraq) to older experiments in democratic transition (of which there are many examples). * Latin American Politics and Society *