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OverviewFrom Voting to Violence examines the ways in which democratization can exacerbate nationalist fervor and ethnic conflict if the conditions promoting a successful transition are not in place. The book argues that international organizations sometimes cause more conflict than they avert in their rush to establish democratic governments and punish outgoing leaders. Snyder closes by prescribing policies that can make democratic transitions less dangerous and allow fledgling democracies to flourish. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Jack L. Snyder (Columbia University)Publisher: WW Norton & Co Imprint: WW Norton & Co Dimensions: Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.60cm Weight: 0.545kg ISBN: 9780393974812ISBN 10: 0393974812 Pages: 320 Publication Date: 17 January 2001 Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Tertiary & Higher Education , Professional & Vocational Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Out of stock The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available. Table of ContentsReviewsA scholarly thesis about the perils and difficulties involved in the transition from tyranny to participatory government. Snyder (Political Science/Columbia) finds a correlation between a collapsing central authority (followed by a quickly emerging but immature democratization process) and the newly aroused ethnic conflicts that have sprung up in recent years. He suggests policies that would make such transitions safer, mainly by not rushing democratic political structures into place before the logical stages of progress have been achieved. Snyder also argues that a controlled media in the early phases of democratization may create national mythmaking, and that this may deter the development of democratic institutions (as was the case in Germany before WWI and WWII). He bases his theories upon the historical experiences of Germany, revolutionary France, Serbia, India, postcolonial Africa, and other nations with weak or nonexistent traditions of democratic government. Some of these nations democratic traditions were too weak to offset the powerful forces of ethnic nationalism that, once unleashed, brought violent conflicts against real or perceived enemies (as in Bosnia, Kosovo, Croatia, etc.). The refusal of discredited ruling parties to accept electoral defeat, combined with immoderate appeals to the old ethnic groups that were once held in check by a strong central government, will inevitably present a real and profound danger to peoples not used to democracy. In contrast, Snyder argues, civic identity and civic nationalization divided people the least after the fall of communism (as in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, etc.). He believes that the preconditions of democracy must be in place in order for it to develop sanelyand in order to avoid the ethnic nationalism of hate and civil war that can be driven by manipulating political leaders. Snyder presents logical theories supported by historical studies that question the undue optimism of a rush to an immature liberal democracy at the tragic cost of bloody strife and loss of freedom. National leaders should take notice. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationJack L. Snyder is the Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science and the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia. His books include Electing to Fight: Why Emerging Democracies Go to War, co-authored with Edward D. Mansfield (MIT Press, 2007) and From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (Norton, 2000). His articles on such topics as crisis diplomacy, democratization and war, nationalism, imperial overstretch, war crimes tribunals versus amnesties, international relations theory after September 11, and anarchy and culture have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, International Organization, International Security, and World Politics. Professor Snyder teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on nationalism, comparative methods, and grand strategy. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of Columbia's Arts and Sciences Policy and Planning Committee. He is the editor of the Norton Series in World Politics. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |