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OverviewFrederic C. Schaffer challenges the assumption often made by American scholars that democracy has been achieved in foreign countries when criteria such as free elections are met. Elections, he argues, often have cultural underpinnings that are invisible to outsiders. To examine grassroots understandings of democratic institutions and political concepts, Schaffer conducted fieldwork in Senegal, a mostly Islamic and agrarian country with a long history of electoral politics. Schaffer discovered that ideas of ""demokaraasi"" held by Wolof-speakers often reflect concerns about collective security. Many Senegalese see voting as less a matter of choosing leaders than of reinforcing community ties that may be called upon in times of crisis.By looking carefully at language, Schaffer demonstrates that institutional arrangements do not necessarily carry the same meaning in different cultural contexts. Democracy in Translation asks how social scientists should investigate the functioning of democratic institutions in cultures dissimilar from their own, and raises larger issues about the nature of democracy, the universality of democratic ideals, and the practice of cross-cultural research. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Frederic Charles SchafferPublisher: Cornell University Press Imprint: Cornell University Press Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 23.50cm Weight: 0.454kg ISBN: 9780801486913ISBN 10: 0801486912 Pages: 192 Publication Date: 18 July 2000 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate , Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: In Print  This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us. Table of ContentsReviewsAn innovative and fascinating book. Schaffer places the challenge of understanding concepts at the center of discussion in democratization studies and comparative politics. David Collier, University of California, Berkeley In this elegant and lucid study, Frederic C Schaffer asks what democracy means to people in Senegal. . . Schaffer succeeds in saying, to people who make blanket assertions about the democratic character and salutary benefits of elections, that democracy, when translated, is not necessarily what they think it is. That is his aim and achievement and arguably a quite valuable one. Jeffrey W. Rubin, American Journal of Sociology. September, 1999. This well-crafted and deeply researched study is one of the two or three most important studies of democratization in Africa yet to appear in the 1990's. -John Clark, International Journal of African Historical Studies. 1998. Author InformationFrederic C. Schaffer is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is the author of The Hidden Costs of Clean Election Reform, also from Cornell. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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