Elite Foundations Of Liberal Democracy (elite Transformations)
by Michael Burton /
2006 / English / PDF
950 KB Download
This compelling and convincing study represents the
culmination of the authors' several decades of research on the
pivotal role played by elites in the success or failure of
political regimes. Revising the classical theory of elites and
politics, John Higley and Michael Burton distinguish basic types of
elites and associated political regimes. They canvas political
change during the modern historical and contemporary periods to
identify circumstances and ways in which the sine qua non of
liberal democracy, a consensually united elite, has formed and
persisted.
This compelling and convincing study represents the
culmination of the authors' several decades of research on the
pivotal role played by elites in the success or failure of
political regimes. Revising the classical theory of elites and
politics, John Higley and Michael Burton distinguish basic types of
elites and associated political regimes. They canvas political
change during the modern historical and contemporary periods to
identify circumstances and ways in which the sine qua non of
liberal democracy, a consensually united elite, has formed and
persisted.
The book considers an impressive body of cases, examining how
consensually united elites have fostered forty-five liberal
democracies and how disunited or ideologically united elites have
thus far prevented liberal democracy in more than one hundred other
countries. The authors argue that obstacles to the emergence of
elites propitious for liberal democracy are more formidable than
democratization enthusiasts recognize. They assess prospects for
the transformation of disunited and ideologically united elites
where they now exist, ask whether current challenges to Western
liberal democracies will undermine their consensually united
elites, and explore what the rise of the distinctive elite
clustered around George W. Bush may portend for America's liberal
democracy. The authors' powerful and important argument reframes
our thinking about liberal democracy and questions optimistic
assumptions about the prospects for its spread in the twenty-first
century.
The book considers an impressive body of cases, examining how
consensually united elites have fostered forty-five liberal
democracies and how disunited or ideologically united elites have
thus far prevented liberal democracy in more than one hundred other
countries. The authors argue that obstacles to the emergence of
elites propitious for liberal democracy are more formidable than
democratization enthusiasts recognize. They assess prospects for
the transformation of disunited and ideologically united elites
where they now exist, ask whether current challenges to Western
liberal democracies will undermine their consensually united
elites, and explore what the rise of the distinctive elite
clustered around George W. Bush may portend for America's liberal
democracy. The authors' powerful and important argument reframes
our thinking about liberal democracy and questions optimistic
assumptions about the prospects for its spread in the twenty-first
century.