Designing Democracy in a Dangerous World addresses a question at
the heart of contemporary global politics: how does one craft
democracy in fragile and divided states? In Iraq and Afghanistan,
spiraling conflict was driven in large part by the mistakes of
institutional design in the immediate post-conflict period. The
future hopes for peace and stability in those, and other cases,
rest on a well designed political system which can bring legitimacy
to elected leaders and offer reassurances to minorities. Designing
Democracy fills gaps in knowledge in three ways. First, it develops
a theoretical framework for assessing what type of democracy will
best serve a nation. Second, it offers a behind the scenes look at
the intricacies of democratic design in a number of focus cases.
Third, the book pulls together lessons for policymakers by
surveying patterns of success and failure over the last forty
years. Reynolds tests his framework by drawing on extensive
quantitative and qualitative evidence, gathering data from 66 cases
to analyze the relationship between democracy and stability and a
nation's demographic, socio-political, historical, and economic
features, and previous levels of instability. To this mix are added
institutional variables: electoral systems, decentralization,
levels of executive inclusion, and executive type. For a
qualitative focus the book draws on the author's experience as a
constitutional adviser during the last fifteen years in
democratizing nations such as South Africa, Afghanistan, Sierra
Leone, Burma, Lebanon, Sudan, and Iraq. There are very few places
in the world today where the majority of people do not desire some
degree of choice, accountability over their leaders, and the rule
of law. The key is to craft a democracy that is home grown and
appropriate to a given society. By bringing new evidence and
arguments to bear on the topic of promoting democracy, Designing
Democracy contributes to both foreign policy and academic debates.
Comparative Politics is a series for students, teachers, and
researchers of political science that deals with contemporary
government and politics. Global in scope, books in the series are
characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong
methodological rigour. The series is published in association with
the European Consortium for Political Research. For more
information visit: www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr The Comparative Politics
Series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell, School of Politics
and International Relations, University College Dublin, Kenneth
Carty, Professor of Political Science, University of British
Columbia, and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser, Institute of Political
Science, Philipps University, Marburg.
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