The Failure of Democratic Nation Building: Ideology Meets Evolution

by Albert Somit and Steven A. Peterson

Book Overview

In this book, Somit and Peterson argue that humans are social primates with an innate tendency for hierarchical and authoritarian social and political structures, and that democracy requires very special "enabling conditions" before it can be supported by a state, conditions that require decades to evolve. As a result, attempts to export democracy through nation-building to states without these enabling conditions are doomed to failure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0230621120
• ISBN13: 9780230621121
• Release Date: January 2010
• Publisher: Palgrave MacMillan
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"