The Making of Democrats: Elections and Party Development in Postwar Bosnia, El Salvador, and Mozambique [Paperback]

Can elections create democrats? Why and how do formerly armed opposition groups decide to invest in electoral politics or to undermine them? This book argues that the answer lies in the patterns of inter- and intraparty struggles created by participation in repeated elections over time.Introduction: Elections, Democratization and Statebuilding * Parties as Mediators of System Change *?Mozambique: The Case of Renamo * Bosnia: The Croatian Democratic Union and the Serbian Democratic Party * El Salvador: The FMLN * Conclusion: Electoralism and the Making of Democrats

Manning effectively explores the theoretical reasons these countries pursued democratic methods and goals, and the extent to which elections contribute to an evolutionary democratization process... The wealth of comparative evidence from African, Latin American, and European political and socioeconomic sources is impressive and enriches the analysis... Recommended. - CHOICE

Carrie Manning is Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgia State University.