Volume 38, Number 4, July 2006

In analyzing the international dimension of democratization, there are two sources of international influence: leverage, or governments’ vulnerability to western pressure, and linkage, or the density of economic, political, organizational, social, and communication ties between particular countries and the West. Although both leverage and linkage raise the cost of authoritarianism, linkage contributes more consistently to democratization. Extensive linkage contributes to democratization even under unfavorable domestic conditions. Where linkage and leverage are low, external democratizing pressure is minimal, and domestic forces predominate. Where linkage is low but leverage high, external pressure is intermittent and partially effective. Slovakia, Mexico, Russia, and Zambia are examined.

Since 1978 forty percent of elected presidents in South America have been challenged by civilian actors trying to force them to leave office early. Twenty-three percent have fallen through impeachment and resignations. Challenged presidents were more likely to pursue neoliberal policies, be personally implicated in scandal, and lack a congressional majority than unchallenged presidents. The presence or absence of large street protests demanding their removal from office were crucial in determining their fates. Presidential falls confound several core assumptions about presidential regimes: that presidential terms are firmly fixed, that populations can not withdraw presidential mandates, and that political conflict in presidentialism results in democratic breakdown.

Why do some new democracies face an extreme degree of political polarization? Many see polarization as driven by preexisting ethnic, religious, or ideological cleavages. This article argues that polarization results from the short-term, interest-driven strategies of social movements and political parties. The development of political polarization in Zimbabwe over four years demonstrates the connection between actors’ strategies and the broader process of political change. Polarization is used by political parties to mobilize constituencies and build organizations. Parties creatively reshape the boundaries of conflict, but they also set in motion processes over which they have little control.

Conventional wisdom suggests that a direct relationship exists between greater wealth and higher democratic participation. However, an original database compiled for fifty-three governments in two states in northern India, including interviews with over 2,000 village residents, shows that information, education, and gender are more important for democratic participation, while wealth and social status matter relatively little. Policies that enable people to educate and inform themselves better should help raise poor people’s stakes in democracy.

Views on contemporary Russian politics can be divided into two broad groups. The failed democratization school asserts that the transition in Russia is over and that the country has failed to establish the rudiments of a liberal democracy. The democratic evolutionist approach insists that the system remains fluid and dynamic and that the undoubted shortcomings in the quality of Russia’s postcommunist regime can be resolved within the framework of the existing constitutional order. Key issues for future research include problems of class and economic power and their relationship to the political order, diverse forms of elite aggregation and competition, the interaction of geopolitics and democratization, and long-term problems of national and state development.

The new transnationalism studies the regular interactions between state and nonstate actors across national boundaries aimed at shaping political and social outcomes at home, abroad, and in the emerging sphere of global governance. What is new about the new transnationalism, and why should comparativists be concerned? First, a contemporary analysis of what used to be called domestic and international politics must include a systematic recognition of transnational influences. Second, comparativists have a great opportunity to apply their characteristic methods and theories to the study of transnational actors and emerging spheres of transnational governance.