TY - BOOK ID - 30919427 TI - Democracy in retreat PY - 2013 SN - 1299284124 030018896X 9780300188967 9780300205800 0300205805 9780300175387 0300175388 9781299284128 PB - New Haven Yale University Press DB - UniCat KW - Democracy KW - Democratization KW - World politics KW - Democratic consolidation KW - Democratic transition KW - #SBIB:324H20 KW - #SBIB:324H70 KW - Politologie: theorieën (democratie, comparatieve studieën….) KW - Politieke verandering: algemeen KW - Political science KW - New democracies KW - Démocratie KW - Démocratisation KW - Case studies KW - Case studies. KW - Cas, Etudes de UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:30919427 AB - Since the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic-especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame: Islamism, authoritarian Chinese influence, or perhaps the rise of local autocrats. But what if the failures of democracy are not exceptions? In this thought-provoking study of democratization, Joshua Kurlantzick proposes that the spate of retreating democracies, one after another over the past two decades, is not just a series of exceptions. Instead, it reflects a new and disturbing trend: democracy in worldwide decline. The author investigates the state of democracy in a variety of countries, why the middle class has turned against democracy in some cases, and whether the decline in global democratization is reversible. ER -