Home Contemporary Democracies
book: Contemporary Democracies
Book
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Contemporary Democracies

Participation, Stability, and Violence
  • G. Bingham Powell Jr.
Language: English
Published/Copyright: 1982
View more publications by Harvard University Press

About this book

Why do some democracies succeed while others fail? In seeking an answer to this problem, Powell examines the record of voter participation, government stability, and violence in 29 democracies during the 1960s and 1970s. The core of the book is the treatment of the role of political parties in mobilizing citizens and containing violence.

Reviews

G. Bingham Powell’s new work clearly fits into the small group of important studies of the past generation that combine rigorous analysis of data from a number of societies and theoretical generalizations that have appeared in bits and pieces in studies of more limited scope. The result is impressive… We are treated to a mature piece of social science scholarship, one that represents the ‘state of the art’ in comparative political studies.
-- Worldview

One of the most important contributions to political science of the last decades. Through rigorous empirical analysis…[Powell] provides us with a rich set of tested propositions about the complex interrelationship of socio-cultural environments, institutional and electoral arrangements, party and interest group systems, and government political performance. He has brought us significantly closer to a scientific theory of democracy.
-- Gabriel A. Almond

The central role of political parties as they mediate between environmental, social, and economic factors, on the one hand, and political outcomes, on the other hand, is delineated in a way that I find especially illuminating and creative. The book will stand as a major work in comparative politics.
-- Jorge I. Domínguez

This judicious methodological approach, the wide substantive scope, and the wealth of empirical findings clearly make Powell’s book one of the most important contributions to comparative democratic politics in recent years.
-- Arend Lijphart


Publicly Available Download PDF
i

Publicly Available Download PDF
v

Publicly Available Download PDF
vii

Publicly Available Download PDF
ix

Publicly Available Download PDF
xi

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
1

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
12

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
30

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
54

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
74

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
111

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
133

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
154

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
175

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
201

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
231

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
238

Requires Authentication Unlicensed

Licensed
275

Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 1, 2009
eBook ISBN:
9780674042353
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
293
Downloaded on 17.10.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674042353/html
Scroll to top button