Suchergebnisse

Post-9/11 security concerns and the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq have renewed scholarly interest in nation-building as a form of externally fostered democratization. The selected works assess Iraq and its precursors, seeking general lessons for establishing new democracies. They principally conclude that successful nation-building depends on sustained commitments of time, materiel, and manpower. Although this thesis improves upon earlier studies of democracy promotion, which often treated intentions as determinative, it does not fully reckon with the effect of antecedent conditions on external intervention. As this review addresses, American efforts at nation-building have historically been enabled or constrained by local political institutions. Rather than autonomously reengineering the target society, nation-builders have buttressed bureaucracies and parliaments where they were already available (Germany, Japan) and foundered in countries that lacked such institutions (Somalia, Haiti). In sum, nation-building has been most effective when pursued least ambitiously, amid functioning states with prior experience in constitutional government.

After the Arab Uprisings: Progress and Stagnation in the Middle East and North Africa, by Shamiran Mako and Valentine M. Moghadam. University Press, 2021. 264 pages. $89.99 cloth; $29.99 paper; $24 e-book.

A review essay on books by (1) H. E. Chehabi & Juan J. Linz (Eds), Sultanistic Regimes (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U Press, 1998); (2) Dirk Vandewalle, Libya since Independence: Oil and State-Building (Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 1998); (3) Michael Herb, All in the Family: Absolutism, Revolution, and Democracy in the Middle Eastern Monarchies (Albany, NY: State U New York Press, 1999); & (4) Lisa Wedeen, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (Chicago: U Chicago Press, 1999). As the third wave of democratization recedes, many authoritarian regimes persist. The stability of many authoritarian states raises important questions. The four books under review use different approaches to analyze the basic political struggles that occur within authoritarian states. The studies edited by Chehabi & Linz examine fallen patrimonial states & the difficulty of building democracy in their wake. Vandewalle, Herb, & Wedeen analyze the less attended topic of authoritarian continuity & stability through the resilience of dictatorships in the Middle East. Together, these four books offer an encouraging turning point in theorizing contemporary authoritarianism, independent of democratic transition. 1 Table. Adapted from the source document.