Incomplete Democracy: Political Democratization in Chile and Latin America

Extract

Incomplete Democracy: Political Democratization in Chile and Latin America. By Manuel Antonio Garreton. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 224p. $59.95 cloth, $24.95 paper.

The Consortium in Latin American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University deserves gratitude for launching this series on “Latin America in Translation.” This translation clearly presents the complex analyses of a profound thinker, one who excels at elucidating the subtleties, contradictions, and paradoxes of today's democracies. Previously one of the pioneers of studying transitions from authoritarian rule, Garreton now focuses on the constraints on the successor regimes. His trenchant observations will interest political theorists as well as comparativists and Latin Americanists. He devotes the first half of the book to a broad treatment of current Latin American politics and the second half to a study of the crucial case of Chile. This powerful combination of the general and the particular renders this publication valuable for graduate courses, although it is too sophisticated for most undergraduates.