Stalled Democracy: The Rhetoric of Fallenness in Victorian Culture: Capital, Labor, and the Paradox of State-Sponsored Development

Stalled Democracy: The Rhetoric of Fallenness in Victorian Culture: Capital, Labor, and the Paradox of State-Sponsored Development

by EvaBellin (Author)

Synopsis

In this ambitious book, Eva Bellin examines the dynamics of democratization in late-developing countries where the process has stalled. Bellin focuses on the pivotal role of social forces and particularly the reluctance of capital and labor to champion democratic transition, contrary to the expectations of political economists versed in earlier transitions. Bellin argues that the special conditions of late development, most notably the political paradoxes created by state sponsorship, fatally limit class commitment to democracy. In many developing countries, she contends, those who are empowered by capitalist industrialization become the allies of authoritarianism rather than the agents of democratic reform.Bellin generates her propositions from close study of a singular case of stalled democracy: Tunisia. Capital and labor's complicity in authoritarian relapse in that country poses a puzzle. The author's explanation of that case is made more general through comparison with the cases of other countries, including Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and Egypt. Stalled Democracy also explores the transformative capacity of state-sponsored industrialization. By drawing on a range of real-world examples, Bellin illustrates the ability of developing countries to reconfigure state-society relations, redistribute power more evenly in society, and erode the peremptory power of the authoritarian state, even where democracy is stalled.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 252
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Published: 12 Sep 2002

ISBN 10: 0801439426
ISBN 13: 9780801439421

Media Reviews

Bellin's explicitly comparative, cross-national framework offers readily generalizable findings.

* Perspectives on Politics *

In a detailed study of Tunisia, Bellin finds that some governmental development schemes that explicitly encourage the private sector can better enable private capital and labor to defend their interests.... It contributes to our understanding of the relationship between development and democratization throughout the world.

* Foreign Affairs *

This is a smart, elegantly written book rich in empirical detail and theoretical argument.

* International Journal of Middle East Studies *

In the excitement about transitions to democracy after the Cold War, many analysts didn't notice the countries that failed to live up to their promise. Some, like Algeria, descended into civil war but most sank into political paralysis. In Stalled Democracy, Eva Bellin has produced one of the first serious efforts to examine this phenomenon. Drawing on a clear and compelling examination of recent reform efforts in Tunisia, she shows that late, state-sponsored development may cripple the very social actors-capital and labor-which have served as the historical engines of democratization elsewhere. Bellin makes a persuasive case that we must reconsider the received wisdom about development and democracy.

-- Lisa Anderson, Columbia University

Laying out a clearly stated argument about stalled democracy (democracy stunted between autocracy and fully accountable government), Eva Bellin deftly elaborates the empirical underpinnings for the development of 'contingent' democrats whose level of support for democracy varies according to material self-interest. Both capital and labor, tied to the state's political and economic apron strings, find it difficult if not impossible to sever connections that serve to promote and protect their interests. Yet Bellin's sophisticated analysis leaves open the possibility that such democracy might beunstalled under conditions such as rapid growth, ideological change, or integration into the global economy.

-- John Entelis, Fordham University

Stalled Democracy is a beautifully written book. Eva Bellin's clear writing reflects not only style but clear thinking. From the outset, the reader knows precisely what is at stake here.

-- Joel Migdal, University of Washington

Those who wish to encourage democracy in places like Saudi Arabia and Syria had better read Bellin to understand some of the conditions under which the relevant social forces may promote such development.

-- Clement M. Henry, The University of Texas at Austin
Author Bio
Eva Bellin is Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics in the Department of Politics and the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, Brandeis University.