The Legacies of Liberalism: Path Dependence and Political Regimes in Central America

by James Mahoney

Book Overview

Winner of the Barrington Moore Jr. Prize for the Best Book in Comparative and Historical Sociology from the American Sociological AssociationWinner of the Best Book Award in the Comparative Democratization Section from the American Political Science Association

Despite their many similarities, Central American countries during the twentieth century were characterized by remarkably different political regimes. In a comparative analysis of...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801871050
• ISBN13: 9780801871054
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A different explanation for the current problems - Liberalization.

The theory behind this text is path dependency. It is helpful and explains a lot of the variation between the central american regimes in the 20th and 21st century. It look back at the liberal reforms made in the late 19th century. It has three main variables to explain it. How strong were the reforms (radical or moderate), were they polarizing internally (eg, requiring a strong military to repress the opposition), was there international intervention which paralyzed the reforms and power restructuring? I recommend this book as a good text for upper level political science undergraduate students trying to see a concrete example of path dependency theory and definitely to graduate students. I though I knew a lot about Central America, but could never explain the difference really to a common outsider. This book is quite convincing and helps in that manner. I would say he biggest weakness is that Mahoney does not really research into primary sources himself, but rather reinterprets other's historical research. It seems forced at times to fit his theory, but in general seems fair. An easy read as well.