Book Review: General Politics: Debates on Democratization
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12016_8 |
| Author | Michael T. Rogers |
| Date | 01 May 2013 |
| Published date | 01 May 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
This is the first study to provide an overview of
Christian anarchism. On its own terms it achieves its
aim of synthesising a range of Christian anarchist writ-
ings and demonstrating that Christian anarchism is a
coherent school of thought. However, whether Chris-
tian anarchism would appear to be coherent after a
thorough examination of the tensions between Chris-
tian anarchists remains to be seen. Important disagree-
ments within Christian anarchism, such as questions of
economic justice, are unfortunately only briefly dis-
cussed. Furthermore, most of the thinkers who are
discussed in depth are from the nineteenth and twen-
tieth centuries and it would have been beneficial to
have assessed the ideas of pre-nineteenth-century
Christian anarchists, such as the leader of the Diggers
Gerrard Winstanley and the Ranters. Nonetheless, this
book is a well-written, important and useful starting
point for a subject area that is likely to grow.
Daniel Duggan
(Durham University)
Debates on Democratization by Larry Diamond,
Marc F. Plattner and Philip J. Costopoulos (eds).
Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
313pp., £13.00, ISBN 9780801897771
Debates on Democratization reproduces five debates con-
ducted by leading scholars in the Journal of Democracy
(JOD) over the last two decades.The first tackles what
constitutes democratic consolidation. Linz and Stepan
posit three conditions: (1) the need for a state-enforced
rule of law; (2) routine free and fair elections; and (3)
rulers governing democratically (p. 3). Four articles
follow, questioning these criteria as too demanding or
too biased towards Western conceptions. The second
debate questions whether there is a dominant transition
paradigm. Carothers argues that there is and that it
contains these assumptions: (1) countries moving away
from dictatorial rule are moving towards democracy;
(2) democratic transition follows a process (opening to
breakthrough to consolidation); (3) free and fair elec-
tions are overvalued in the process;(4) the impor tance
of leadership committed to democracy outweighs
political culture, history and economics in consolida-
tion; and (5) transitioning countries have an adequate
state for consolidation (pp. 79–80). He concludes that
many countries fail to meet these criteria and are in a
‘grey zone’ between democracy and authoritarian gov-
ernment. Five articles follow challenging Carothers’
claims that (a) a transition paradigm exists for scholars
or democracy practitioners and (b) it is useful.
The third debate is over the sequencing process.
Carothers claims that some scholars have begun
arguing that preconditions (like the rule of law and a
functioning state) should exist before introducing
democratic elections (p. 130). He disagrees, claiming
that sequencing arguments give authoritarian rulers
grounds for stalling democratisation. Instead, he advo-
cates gradualism and the ensuing articles discuss the
merits of sequencing versus gradualism. The fourth
debate explores the causes of post-communist colour
revolutions.Articles explore the possible culprits, which
range from unpopular or poor leadership, openness of
media, level of organisation of the opposition and the
existence of independent electoral monitoring to
foreign pressure and support for democratisation and
the diffusion of tactics from one country to the next.
The final debate begins with Linz claiming that presi-
dentialism is less conducive than parliamentarianism to
democratic stability. Four articles follow, questioning
whether presidentialism is the cause of instability and
testing how the assumption holds up for parliamentary
or semi-presidential countries.
Collectively, the book serves two audiences. Scholars
new to the democratisation literature will find a good
introduction to its debates. It is also suitable for gradu-
ate or undergraduate courses; in particular the fifth
debate could be a useful way to introduce differences
between presidentialism and parliamentarianism.
However, all articles are reprinted from the JOD,so
where there is access to it there is little reason for the
book, beyond convenience.
Michael T. Rogers
(Arkansas Tech University)
The Dream in Islam: From Qur’anic Tradition
to Jihadist Inspiration by Iain R. Edgar. Oxford:
Berghahn Books, 2011. 145pp., £21.00, ISBN
9780857452351
Iain R. Edgar’s new study, The Dream in Islam, focuses
on the role of dreams in the everyday lives of Muslims.
This book is an interpretation of an interpretation, in
the sense that Edgar, as a social anthropologist, inter-
prets the Muslim practice of using dreams as a tech-
nology of the sacred in justifying behaviour.He ties this
232 POLITICAL THEORY
© 2013 TheAuthors. Political Studies Review © 2013 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2013, 11(2)
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