Life in the Political Machine

Reviews / Votes

This impressive, precise work offers lessons for many other countries. * A. Siaroff, CHOICE * Life in the Political Machine is an engaging, comparative exploration of the impact of pre-democratic parties in transitional democratic countries, specifically Mexico and Argentina. The authors combine original qualitative analysis based on extensive field research with broad statistical assessments from the Latin American Public Opinion Project datasets. This imaginative, original work clearly demonstrates the degree to which widely differing levels of support for democracies exist within and among countries, challenging the notion of national political cultures. Anyone interested in the process of democratic transitions should read this book. * Roderic Ai Camp, Claremont McKenna College * This book successfully brings together two important but largely separate literatures: those on subnational regimes and on political behavior. Moving the focus from elites to citizens, the book explores how undemocratic regions within democratic countries shape the minds and actions of their voters. Through statistical analyses of survey data and case studies, Hiskey and Moseley demonstrate that subnational dominant-party enclaves undermine democratic mass attitudes and behaviors. This important book provides a model of how to integrate political institutions and political culture in a single piece of research. * Carlos Gervasoni, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella * Hiskey and Moseley make an original and important contribution to our understanding of subnational dominant party enclaves by examining these enclaves through a new lens: the beliefs and behaviors of the citizens who reside in them. Using varied data from Argentina and Mexico, the authors demonstrate that undemocratic local political regimes affect how citizens engage with both subnational and national politics. This lucid book is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking to understand how subnational undemocratic regimes affect the quality of national democracy. * Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro, Brown University *