From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict - Hardcover

Snyder, Jack L.; Snyder, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393048810 ISBN 13: 9780393048810

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2000

Synopsis

A trenchant analysis of the attempts to mediate the transition from oppression to freedom, and a warning of the potentially disastrous challenges that face burgeoning democracies. With the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, many proclaimed the triumph of liberal democracy as they watched democratization sweep through formerly authoritarian countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and East Asia. Yet the 1990s turned out to be a decade marked by chronic nationalist conflict, and the sense of democratic triumph turned to frustration. In From Voting to Violence, Jack Snyder shows how democratization can actually exacerbate nationalist fervor and ethnic conflict if the conditions permitting a successful transition are not in place. Arguing that international organizations can cause conflict rather than averting it in their rush to establish democratic governments and punish outgoing leaders, he prescribes policies that will make transitions less dangerous and allow fledgling democracies to flourish. In the light of such tragic examples as Weimar Germany and contemporary Bosnia--each drawn into a spiral of ethnic hatred and civil war by political leaders manipulating nationalist sentiments--From Voting to Violence questions the sometimes rash optimism of liberal democracy that would rush to democracy at the cost of freedom.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations, chair of the political science department at Columbia University, and chair of the Committee on International Peace and Security of the Social Science Research Council.

Reviews

In this acutely argued book, Columbia University political scientist Snyder challenges the American dogma that voting is a political panacea regardless of conditions or circumstances. Critically assessing American foreign policy in the 1990s, he argues that promoting free elections often produces serious conflict; he argues that where critical preconditions are not present (where there isn't, for instance, an adaptable ruling elite or institutions such as the rule of law and a free press), embracing the popular ballot often leads to the rise of a noxious nationalism, conflict and war: "Democratization produces nationalism when powerful elites within a nation need to harness popular energies to the tasks of war and economic development" yet "want to avoid surrendering real political authority." Snyder supports his theory with overwhelming evidence from a diverse array of historical situations--from revolutionary France to Nazi Germany, from Eastern Europe after the breakup of the Soviet Union to central Africa and central and southern Asia. His documentation suggests a pattern in ethnically divided authoritarian states: ethnic/nationalist conflict often bursts out just as efforts at democratization get underway. Drawing on his analysis, Snyder "prescribes ways to make democratic transitions less dangerous." The intellectual rigor of this important book distinguishes it from arguments driven by simple conservative longings for authoritarian rule; his analysis of the link between the initiation of democracy and resulting nationalism is far more convincing than the common reference to "ancient hatreds" as the source of conflict. Exceptionally well-organized and clearly written, Snyder's book provides a fresh look at the debate over the process of introducing democracy into formerly authoritarian countries. (Apr.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393048810
• ISBN 13: 9780393048810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320