the international dimensions of democratization: europe and the americasby laurence whitehead
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The International Dimensions of Democratization: Europe and the Americas by LaurenceWhiteheadReview by: Francis FukuyamaForeign Affairs, Vol. 76, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1997), pp. 124-125Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048044 .
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Recent Books
example, argues that while China followed
realist precepts in foreign policy, it did so not because realism is a universal mode of
state behavior, but because it arose out of
Chinese cultural and historical experience. Other chapters look at the development of
international norms in areas like human
rights and chemical weapons proliferation. The broadening of realism to take
account of social and cultural factors in
the shaping of security policy is to be welcomed. The authors of this collec
tion have largely avoided the pitfall of
abandoning power politics altogether as
a framework in favor of cultural studies.
Growing Artificial Societies: Social Science
from the Bottom Up. by joshua m.
EPSTEIN AND ROBERT AXTELL.
Washington: Brookings, 1996, 208 pp.
%9-95 (paper, $18.95). Astute readers will note the influence of
the Santa Fe Institute and concepts of 4 complex adaptive systems" in this books
title. Most social science models, including the general equilibrium model at the
heart of modern neoclassical economics,
mathematically reconstruct the aggregate behavior of populations by imposing highly simplified behavioral assumptions on them (for example, rational utility
maximization). These models also tend
to be static, that is, they cannot account
for evolutionary change over time. Mod
eling "from the bottom up" means using
computers to test the interaction of indi
vidual agents rather than aggregated pop
ulations, and has been used successfully in
the life sciences to predict the evolution
of complex biological systems. This book describes an extension of this methodol
ogy into the social sciences, in particular the authors' "sugarscape" society in
which individual agents engage in sexual
reproduction, trade, learning, and a range of social behaviors. While the issues raised
here may seem overly technical for general
readers, the use of this technique repre sents a recognition that existing models
are too simplistic and mechanical ever
to capture the realities of complex social
systems. The next logical area for it to
spread is into military modeling, and
readers should expect further works
along these lines in the coming years.
The International Dimensions of Democratization: Europe and the
Americas, edited by Laurence
whitehead. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1996,431 pp. $65.00. The burgeoning literature on transitions
to democracy has been largely written by students of comparative politics who are
often specialists on one country or region, and hence tend to emphasize domestic
factors in explaining why democratic
transitions do or do not come about. This
book explores systematically the interna
tional dimensions of democratization. As
Whitehead points out, the simple geo
graphical contiguity of democratic transi
tions occurring first in southern Europe, then in the Caribbean and Latin America, then in formerly communist countries, and the wave-like pattern in which de
mocratizations happen suggests that
international influences are at least as
important as domestic ones. His introduc
tion and the chapter by Philippe Schmitter
suggest a taxonomy of mechanisms
through which democratic influences are transmitted across borders, including
contagion, control (where one or more
countries explicitly promote democracy), consent, and conditionality (through the
[124] FOREIGN AFFAIRS-Volume 76 No. 3
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influence of international institutions
like the International Monetary Fund or World Bank). Subsequent chapters explore
concrete cases in Latin America, Europe, and Eastern Europe and provide useful
assessments ofthe effectiveness of democ
racy?and human rights?promotion
policies by the United States, Europe, and various ngos.
Modernization and Postmodernization:
Cultural, Economic, and Political
Change in 43 Societies, by ronald
inglehart. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1997, 44? PP $60.00 (paper, $18.95).
Based on the University of Michigans long-running and massive World Values
Survey, this book provides substantial
empirical support for the concept of modernization?that is, that economic,
social, and political development are linked in coherent ways and that all societies un
dergoing modernization tend to follow
certain consistent trajectories. While
eschewing deterministic or linear theories
of historical development, Inglehart notes
that virtually all highly developed societies are
experiencing a shift from industrial-age values such as economic and physical
security or a strong work ethic to "post modern" values emphasizing quality of
life or self-expression. The books data
give support to the classic Lipset correla
tion between economic development and
democracy, and adds an important cul
tural variable to the explanation for why these phenomena are linked: interpersonal trust and organizational membership, fac
tors emphasized in Robert Putnam's work
on Italy, are found to be correlated with
both development and democracy. Non
academics might find the book's presen tation of statistical data a bit off-putting.
U.N. Peacekeeping, American Policy, and
the Uncivil Wars ofthei??os. edited
by william j. durch. New York:
St. Martin's Press, 1997,5?2 PP- $49-95 This follow-up to the author's earlier
edition, The Evolution of UN. Peacekeeping, presents case studies of major recent
U.N. peacekeeping operations in Angola,
Cambodia, Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda.
The collection details the by now familiar dilemmas of peacekeeping: many conflicts
like Bosnia require peace enforcement
rather than peacekeeping, but the con
tributing states are seldom willing to
commit sufficient resources or to take
sides in highly politicized situations,
leaving U.N. forces on the ground as
powerless hostages. This volume does not
add anything surprising to the knowledge of peacekeeping, but the individual chap ters are more
comprehensive than many ofthe books on this topic in recent years.
Economie, Social, and Environmental
RICHARD N. COOPER
Who Elected the Bankers? Surveillance and
Control in the World Economy, by
louis w. PAULY. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 1997,176 pp. $25.00. The core of this book skillfully describes
the evolution of international monetary
cooperation from the League of Nations
To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign ?ffairs, call 800-255-2665.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS May/June 1007 [125]
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