From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict

Rating:
Summary: Great book for students
Review: I am currently a university student, and I am also a European. I was back in Europe when the Berlin Wall fell, and remember all the anticipations it gave for a new and better Germany. This book explains how many people fail to consider many of the negative aspects of pursuing democracy without laying a foundation for changes. Great book for Political Science, Economics and Media students!

Rating:
Summary: Provocative, but a mess
Review: The book has its moments, but the conclusions are never compelling. His core mistake is that he never defines democratization. First, he conflates democratization and liberalization, which are two very different processes. As part of this, we never know when democratization begins or ends. Apparently German was democratizing for 45 years and Serbia for a century. Third, ethnic conflict has more to do with how authoritarian regimes governed than the fact that they disappeared, which would be clearer if he examined why so many ethnically diverse democratizing states have no significant rise in ethnic violence. Finally, many his policy presciptions go in the opposite direction of what a broad reading of the evidence would indicate.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: What makes this a great political science book is not merely the provocative counterintuitive claim regarding democratization (specifically partial democractization) offered by the author, but the solid, systematic and CLEAR (!) theoretical and empirical cases offer in support. A pleasure to read and a valuable contribution to scholarship and policy-making alike.