Parties, Movements, and Democracy in the Developing World

This volume analyzes regime politics in the developing world. By focusing on the civilian, collective actors that forge democracy and sustain it, this book moves beyond materialist arguments focusing on gross domestic product (GDP), poverty, and inequality. With case material from four continents, this volume emphasizes the decisive role played by parties and movements in forging democracy against the odds. These pivotal collectivities are consistently the key civilian collectivities that successfully mobilized for democracy, that helped forge enduring democratic institutions, and that shaped the quality of the democracies that emerged; they are the ones tasked with mobilizing along a range of social cleavages, confronting seemingly inhospitable conditions, and coordinating the process of regime change. While the presence of parties and movements alone is not sufficient to explain democracy, their absence is detrimental to enduring democratic regimes. Thus, this volume refocuses our attention on parties and movements as critical mechanisms of regime change.

1. Parties, movements and the making of democracy Nancy Bermeo and Deborah J. Yashar; 2. The content of democracy: nationalist parties and inclusive ideologies in India and Indonesia Maya Tudor and Dan Slater; 3. Social cleavages, political parties, and the building of performance legitimacy in Southeast Asia Erik Martinez Kuhonta; 4. Democratic divergence and party systems in Latin America's third wave Kenneth M. Roberts; 5. Strong parties, weak parties: divergent pathways to democracy in sub-Saharan Africa Rachel Beatty Riedl; 6. Parties in transitional democracies: authoritarian legacies and post-authoritarian challenges in the Middle East and North Africa Ellen Lust and David Waldner; 7. Mechanisms matter Nancy Bermeo and Deborah J. Yashar.

Nancy Bermeo holds the Nuffield Chair of Comparative Politics at the University of Oxford and is a PIIRS Senior Scholar at Princeton University, New Jersey.
Deborah J. Yashar is Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University, New Jersey, and chief-editor of World Politics.