Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America - Mainwaring, Scott (University of Notre Dame, Indiana) a Perez-Linan, Anibal (University of Pittsburgh)

This book presents a new theory for why democracies and dictatorships emerge and then either survive or collapse. Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Lián analyze the survival of political regimes in Latin America since 1900, arguing for a theory of democratization situated between explanations that emphasize long-term structural preconditions and short-term decisions by specific leaders.