Designing Democracy in a Dangerous World

Designing Democracy in a Dangerous World addresses a question at the heart of contemporary global politics: how does one craft democracy in fragile and divided states? In Iraq and Afghanistan spiraling conflict was driven in large part by the mistakes of institutional design in the immediate post-conflict period. The future hopes for peace and stability in those and other cases rest on a well designed political system which can bring legitimacy to elected leaders and offer reassurances to minorities. Designing Democracy fills gaps in knowledge in three ways. First it develops a theoretical framework for assessing what type of democracy will best serve a nation. Second it offers a behind the scenes look at the intricacies of democratic design in a number of focus cases. Third the book pulls together lessons for policymakers by surveying patterns of success and failure over the last forty years. Reynolds tests his framework by drawing on extensive quantitative and qualitative evidence gathering data from 66 cases to analyze the relationship between democracy and stability and a nation''s demographic socio-political historical and economic features and previous levels of instability. To this mix are added institutional variables: electoral systems decentralization levels of executive inclusion and executive type. For a qualitative focus the book draws on the author''s experience as a constitutional adviser during the last fifteen years in democratizing nations such as South Africa Afghanistan Sierra Leone Burma Lebanon Sudan and Iraq.There are very few places in the world today where the majority of people do not desire some degree of choice accountability over their leaders and the rule of law. The key is to craft a democracy that is home grown and appropriate to a given society. By bringing new evidence and arguments to bear on the topic of promoting democracy Designing Democracy contributes to both foreign policy and academic debatesparative Politics is a series for students teachers and researchers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. Global in scope books in the series are characterised by a stress on comparative analysis and strong methodological rigour. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research. For more information visit: essex.ac.uk/ecpr The Comparative Politics Series is edited by Professor David M. Farrell School of Politics and International Relations University College Dublin Kenneth Carty Professor of Political Science University of British Columbia and Professor Dirk Berg-Schlosser Institute of Political Science Philipps University Marburg.