University of Notre Dame political scientist Scott Mainwaring has coedited a new book that analyzes and explains the challenges facing democratic representation in five Andean countries:Bolivia,Colombia,Ecuador,PeruandVenezuela.
The Crisis of Democratic Representation in the Andes,published by Stanford University Press, is coedited by Ana María Bejarano and Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez, former visiting fellows at Notre Dames Kellogg Institute for International Studies.Nine of the 11 contributors are former visiting fellows at the institute.
Understanding what has gone wrong with democracy in Latin America and many other third wavedemocracies has become one of the outstanding intellectual challenges of our day,writes Mainwaring, Kelloggs director, and his co-editors.The widespread dissatisfaction with democratic representation is a core ingredient in the crisis of democracy in the Andes and throughout much ofLatin America.
In this region, disaffection with democracy, political parties and legislatures has spread to an alarming degree. Many presidents have been forced from office, and many traditional parties have fallen by the wayside.
Mainwaring said that these five countries have the potential to benegative examples in a region that has historically had strong demonstration and diffusion effects in terms of regime changes.His new book addresses an important question forLatin Americaas well as other parts of the world: Why does representation sometimes fail to work?
Mainwaring holds the Eugene Conley Chair in Political Science. Ana MaríaBejarano is an assistant professor of political science at theUniversityofToronto, and Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez is a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá.
The Crisis of Democratic Representation in theAndes,can be ordered from Stanford University Press at http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?book_id=5278
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