The fate of democratic governments throughout the world is a topic of growing concern. The crises of modern history, from the Machtergreifung by Hitler through the downfall of democracies. In a systematic review of the political experiences of Latin American and European democratic nations, these original, thought-provoking books propose a significant new comparative framework for understanding the dynamics of political change and the conditions necessary for democratic stability.
Juan José Linz (24 December 1926 – 1 October 2013) was a Spanish sociologist and political scientist. He was Sterling Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale University and an honorary member of the Scientific Council at the Juan March Institute. He is best known for his theories on totalitarian and authoritarian systems of government.
Linz was born in Bonn, Germany. In addition to his work on systems of government, he did extensive research on the breakdowns of democracy and the transition back to a democratic regime. He is the author of many works on the subject, including Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, co-authored with Alfred Stepan), his seminal work Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (Rienner, 2000) and his influential essay 'The Perils of Presidentialism'.
Alfred Stepan is Wallace Sayre Professor of Government, the founding Director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR), and the Co-Director of the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life (IRCPL). In 2012 he was the recipient of the Karl Deutsch Award of the International Political Science Association. The last three recipients of this award were Juan J. Linz (2003), Charles Tilly (2006), and Giovanni Sartori (2009).
Previously, Stepan was the founding Rector and President of Central European University in Budapest, Prague, and Warsaw, the former Director of the Concilium on International and Area Studies at Yale University, and Dean of the School of International Affairs at Columbia University. Stepan was also Gladstone Professor of Government at the University of Oxford and a Fellow Of All Souls College, Oxford.
Stepan's teaching and research interests include comparative politics, theories of democratic transitions, federalism, and the world's religious systems and democracy. In recent years, Stepan has conducted field research in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Burma, Egypt, Tunisia, India, Brazil, Israel, and Palestine, among other countries. Stepan’s publications in the last three years include Crafting State Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies, with Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yadav; “Comparative Perspectives on Inequality and the Quality of Democracy in the United States” with Juan J. Linz in Perspectives on Politics (December 2011); “Tunisia’s Transition and the Twin Tolerations” in Journal of Democracy (April 2012); ““Rituals of Respect: Sufis and Secularists in Senegal in Comparative Perspective” in Comparative Politics (July 2012) “ Democratization Theory and the ‘Arab Spring’”, Journal of Democracy ( April 2013), (with Linz), “Democratic Parliamentary Monarchies, ” Journal of Democracy ( April 2014), ( with Linz and Minoves),and the co-editorship of Democracy& Islam in Indonesia (with Mirjam Künkler), Boundaries of Toleration ( with Charles Taylor), and Democracy, Islam and Secularism: Turkey in Comparative Perspective ( with Ahmet Kuru).
Some of his other books include Arguing Comparative Politics (Oxford 2001);Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe, with J. J. Linz (Johns Hopkins 1996);Rethinking Military Politics: Brazil and the Southern Cone (Princeton 1988); The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes, edited with Juan J. Linz (Johns Hopkins 1978); The State and Society: Peru in Comparative Perspective(Princeton 1978); and The Military in Politics: Changing Patterns in Brazil(Princeton 1971).
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读罢此书,一股强烈的紧迫感油然而生,仿佛是站在悬崖边上,看着脚下的基石正在松动。这本书的叙事手法极其引人入胜,它没有采用那种干巴巴的学术腔调,而是充满了对现实政治图景的生动描摹和犀利批判。作者似乎拥有某种“读心术”,能够准确捕捉到那些在街头抗议中呐喊的民众,以及在权力走廊中进行幕后交易的精英们,他们内心深处的矛盾与动机。书中对“制度性惰性”的剖析尤为精辟,它揭示了在面对快速变化的全球化和技术革命时,原有的制度框架是如何因为路径依赖而变得僵化,无法有效回应社会的新需求,从而为激进势力的崛起提供了温床。我特别欣赏作者在讨论“合法性危机”时所展现的平衡感,他既肯定了民众对现状的不满是正当的,同时也警示了以牺牲程序正义为代价来追求激进变革的潜在风险。这本书更像是一面镜子,它映照出我们这个时代的集体焦虑和希望的错位,读起来既痛苦又充满启发性,强烈推荐给所有关心社会未来走向的人。
评分这本书的学术贡献在于它成功地超越了“好人与坏人”的二元对立叙事,将民主衰退的根源置于更深层次的经济不平等和文化认知变迁的交汇点上。作者对资本流动性与政治参与度之间关系的考察,提供了一个强有力的解释框架:当经济收益的高度集中化与政治决策的普遍性要求之间产生巨大张力时,民粹主义便会应运而生,它本质上是对既有分配模式的一种情绪化反弹。此外,书中对“非正式政治网络”作用的强调,打破了传统政治学过度依赖正式制度(如选举、立法)分析的局限。作者通过细致的案例研究,展示了非正式的捐赠渠道、游说团体以及强大的利益联盟如何绕过民主程序的约束,事实上地塑造了政策走向,这对于理解为何选民感觉自己的投票权“不那么重要”至关重要。全书的写作风格简洁有力,虽是严肃论著,但其推理过程如抽丝剥茧般清晰,令人信服。
评分这部作品以其对当代政治危机的深刻洞察力,在众多探讨民主衰落的学术著作中脱颖而出。作者并未满足于对表面现象的罗列,而是深入挖掘了支撑民主制度运行的那些微妙的社会契约与制度性约束是如何一步步被侵蚀的。他巧妙地引入了比较历史学的视角,将当前欧洲与北美出现的“民粹主义浪潮”置于更宏大的历史脉络中进行审视,指出许多看似“新颖”的政治现象,实则有着可追溯的“旧日幽灵”。尤其令人印象深刻的是,书中对信息生态系统如何重塑公民认知的分析。作者没有简单地指责社交媒体的负面作用,而是构建了一个复杂的模型,解释了算法推荐机制如何加剧了认知闭合,使得不同政治光谱的群体生活在信息孤岛之中,沟通成本急剧上升,最终导致公共领域的碎片化。这种细致入微的解构,让读者得以跳出日常的新闻喧嚣,从更基础的社会结构层面理解为何“共识”变得如此难以达成。全书的论证逻辑严密,数据引证详实,即便是对政治学不太熟悉的读者,也能被其叙事的强大驱动力所吸引,跟随作者穿越迷雾,直面民主制度在当下面临的结构性挑战。
评分这本书带给我的最大感受是,理解衰退的过程远比预测终点更为重要。作者花费了大量篇幅来描绘“退化”的渐进性,而不是专注于某个戏剧性的“政变”时刻。他展示了民主是如何在日常的微小妥协、制度规范的逐步松弛以及对程序正义的漠视中被缓慢“掏空”的。这种细致入微的观察,让我开始关注那些在日常新闻中容易被忽略的细节:比如对司法独立性的持续口头攻击,对统计数据的选择性引用,或是对国际条约的阳奉阴违。作者用一种近乎临床的冷静,解剖了这些“小伤口”累积起来如何最终导致系统性的功能障碍。这本书的价值不在于提供一个现成的解决方案,而在于它提供了一套极其精确的诊断工具,让我们能够识别出当前病灶的准确位置。对于希望深入了解当代政治生态的严肃读者而言,这是一部不可多得的、发人深省的佳作。
评分这本书的叙事节奏感极强,仿佛是跟着一位经验丰富的政治向导,穿梭在当代世界各个角落的政治风暴中心。我特别欣赏作者在处理跨文化比较时的审慎态度,他避免了将西方模式视为唯一的“正途”,而是试图理解不同文化背景下的权力运作逻辑及其对民主形式的具体影响。书中对“后真相时代”的分析,不再停留在简单的“谎言泛滥”层面,而是深入探究了“信仰的政治化”如何成为一种新的社会粘合剂,用共同的怀疑和敌意来替代共同的理性认知。这种对情感驱动的政治的深度剖析,极大地丰富了我对当前政治心理学的理解。这本书的行文流畅,尽管讨论的主题宏大且复杂,但作者总能用精炼的语言抓住核心矛盾。读完后,我感觉对我们所处的这个时代有了一种更深刻、更全面的认识,它强迫我重新审视那些我曾视为理所当然的政治假设。
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