Democratic Spain
Democratic Spain

Author: Richard Gillespie

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 227

ISBN-13: 0415113253

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Spain has emerged from relative political isolation with the transition from authoritarian to democratic government. Its membership of both NATO and the EU have been crucial vehicles for Spain's reappearance on the world stage, though the traditional 'special relationships' with Latin America and the Arab world have also been of great importance. By focusing on the relationship between external relations and domestic policy, Democratic Spain makes an important contribution to the literature on democratization, as well as showing how Spanish foreign policy evolved between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s. While the book is focused on Spain, its revisionist view of democratic transitions is of more general relevance. Democratization is seen as an integral process involving related though not simultaneous changes in domestic policy and external relations. Only with the transformation of its external relations did Spain's new democracy finally become consolidated

Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America
Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America

Author: Scott Mainwaring

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2014-01-31

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1107433630

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This book presents a new theory for why political regimes emerge, and why they subsequently survive or break down. It then analyzes the emergence, survival and fall of democracies and dictatorships in Latin America since 1900. Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán argue for a theoretical approach situated between long-term structural and cultural explanations and short-term explanations that look at the decisions of specific leaders. They focus on the political preferences of powerful actors - the degree to which they embrace democracy as an intrinsically desirable end and their policy radicalism - to explain regime outcomes. They also demonstrate that transnational forces and influences are crucial to understand regional waves of democratization. Based on extensive research into the political histories of all twenty Latin American countries, this book offers the first extended analysis of regime emergence, survival and failure for all of Latin America over a long period of time.