Home › Books & Reviews › Capsule Reviews › Democracies In Regions Of Crisis: Botswana, Costa Rica, Israel
Democracies In Regions Of Crisis: Botswana, Costa Rica, Israel
the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs
Reviewed by By Andrew J. Pierre
Three widely divergent nations having one characteristic in common-democratic forms of government-were selected as the basis of this study. The question was this: What creates or maintains democratic institutions in nations that are under serious internal or external threat? The answer suggested is a combination of a tradition of tolerance for free speech and dissent, diffusion rather than concentration of power and adaptation to local conditions and practices. These threads, common to such a varied set of nations, need to be studied more extensively than was possible here in order to progress toward a general theory. This book, however, represents an interesting start.

Sign-up for free weekly updates from ForeignAffairs.com.