State crisis in fragile democracies : polarization and political regimes in South America / Samuel Handlin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Handlin, Samuel, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy--South America.

Democracy.

Right and left (Political science)--South America.

Right and left (Political science).

Polarization (Social sciences)--South America.

Polarization (Social sciences).

South America--Politics and government--21st century.

South America.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 321 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Summary:

This book offers a novel political-institutional explanation for variation in political polarization, outsider populism, and the fate of democratic regimes across twenty-first-century South America. Drawing upon a wealth of primary evidence and employing process tracing tests to evaluate key causal claims, the book examines how the occurrence - or not - of state crises and the inherited strength of left wing political actors combined to push countries onto distinct party system trajectories characterized by different kinds of left parties and movements, highly variant levels of polarization, and ultimately divergent political regime dynamics. The book challenges extant interpretations of political variation during Latin America's turn to the left, which have centered on economic explanations. It also develops new theoretical propositions for understanding polarization, populism, and democratic erosion in young democracies across the world.

Contents:

State crises, the left, and democracy in contemporary South America

Explaining divergent party system trajectories and regime dynamics

Venezuela : development of a highly polarizing party system

Brazil : development of a weakly polarizing party system

Democratic erosion in Venezuela, representative democracy in Brazil

Bolivia and Ecuador : high polarization and democratic erosion

Chile and Uruguay : low polarization and representative democracy

Paraguay and Peru : low polarization and polyarchy

Longer-term legacies and comparative perspectives around the world

Appendix A: Operationalization of state crisis and left-wing infrastructure

Appendix B: Operationalization of polarization and regime categories.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 11 Aug 2017).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-26194-9

1-108-24470-X

1-108-24642-7

1-108-26010-1

1-108-25670-8

1-108-23368-6

1-108-25840-9