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The elite variable in democratic transitions and breakdowns (1989)

Die Rolle von Eliten in demokratischen Transitionsprozessen und beim Zusammenbruch von Demokratien
[journal article]

Higley, John
Burton, Michael G.

Abstract

"Stable democratic regimes depend heavily on the 'consensual unity' of national elites. So Jong as elites remain disunified, political regimes are unstable, a condition which makes democratic transitions and democratic breakdowns merely temporary oscillations in the forms unstable regimes take. Disu... view more

"Stable democratic regimes depend heavily on the 'consensual unity' of national elites. So Jong as elites remain disunified, political regimes are unstable, a condition which makes democratic transitions and democratic breakdowns merely temporary oscillations in the forms unstable regimes take. Disunity appears to be the generic condition of national elites, and disunity strongly tends to persist regardless of socioeconomic development and other changes in mass populations. The consensually unified elites that are necessary to stable democracies are created in only a few ways, two of the most important of which involve distinctive elite transformations. After elaborating this argument, we examine the relationship between elites and regimes in Western nation-states since they began to consolidate after 1500. We show that our approach makes good sense of the Western political record, that it does much to clarify prospects for stable democracies in developing societies today, and that it makes the increasingly elite-centered analysis of democratic transitions and breakdowns more systematic." (author's abstract)... view less

Keywords
elite; elite research; political elite; transitional society; post-communist society; role; democratization; theory formation; historical development; political change; political regime; conflict; international comparison; Europe; United States of America; Russia; Prussia; nation; power struggle; nineteenth century; typology; USSR successor state; post-socialist country

Classification
General History
Political Process, Elections, Political Sociology, Political Culture

Method
basic research; historical; theory formation

Document language
English

Publication Year
2012

Page/Pages
p. 245-268

Journal
Historical Social Research, 37 (2012) 1

Issue topic
Elite foundations of social theory and politics / Elitetheoretische Grundlagen sozialwissenschaftlicher Theoriebildung und politischer Analyse

DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.37.2012.1.245-268

ISSN
0172-6404

Status
Published Version; peer reviewed

Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0


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© 2007 - 2025 Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR).
Based on DSpace, Copyright (c) 2002-2022, DuraSpace. All rights reserved.