ENGLISH

The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution

By Albert Somit , Steven A. Peterson (auth.)

Book information

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Year
2005
ISBN
978-0-230-62112-1, 978-1-4039-7842-4
DOI
10.1057/9781403978424
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
802 kB (821423 bytes)
Edition
1
Pages
XIII, 159\167
Time added
2016-03-14 21:35:01
Development Policy; International Relations; Democ

Description

Throughout history authoritarian governments have outnumbered democratic ones to an overwhelming degree. Even today, true democracies are an exception. In this book, Somit and Peterson argue that the main reason for this pattern is that humans are social primates with an innate tendency for hierarchical and authoritarian social and political structures. Democracy requires very special 'enabling conditions' before it can be supported by a state, conditions that require decades to evolve. As a result, attempts to export democracy through nation-building to states without these enabling conditions are doomed to failure. The authors argue that money and energy devoted to nation-building around the globe by the U.S. would be better spent on problems facing the country domestically.

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