One of the perks of academic life is free books. Often, these are unsolicited new offerings from the big textbook presses. But sometimes I get a nice set of books that I’ve actually requested (though not always free) that are more personally intriguing—and/or useful to my own research interests. Today I received a hefty (and much-anticipated) package from Cambridge University Press.
Two of these are more immediately useful. The first is The Third Wave of Democratization in Latin America
(2005), which I’ve wanted for some time. It has some great individual-country chapters (the Bolivia one’s written by René Antonio Mayorga) and makes a great reference (and potential course textbook, though perhaps a little too “advanced” for most undergrads). The other is Kanchan Chandra’s Why Ethnic Parties Succeed
(2007). Though it focuses on ethnic parties in India, it was quite the buzz at the recent MPSA conference, as her argument was adapted to Latin American cases. Any book that looks at ethnic parties in relation to electoral institutions, rather than merely from an “activist” perspective is a step in the right direction (cheerleading may be well & good, but it doesn’t help us understand why some ethnic parties succeed, while others fail).
I’m also excited about some of the others. Norman Schofield’s Architects of Political Change
(2006), which uses social choice theory to explain/predict when actors pursue institutional change. Since most of the literature on “constitutional engineering” that I’m familiar w/ comes from an “institutionalist” perspective, I’m interested to take a look at a more “rational choice” treatment of the subject (even if it mostly focuses on the American case). Then there’s Clifford Bob’s The Marketing of Rebellion
(2005), which I’ve also wanted for some time. It’s an “unromanticized” view of social movements that instead looks at how successful ones (those that get media attention) do so by “marketing” themselves in clever & effective ways.
And. Finally, there’s Michael Mann’s The Dark Side of Democracy
(2004). I used his companion volume, Fascists
(2004), in my Democracy & Its Discontents course. Mann’s brilliant. In Fascists, Mann explores the complex relationship between fascism & modern democracy through careful analysis of how fascist movements across interwar Europe rose to power by appealing to & mobilizing “constituencies” (remember: neither Mussolini nor Hitler seized power by force; both were elected). In his first book, he promised that The Dark Side of Democracy would explore more contemporary issues of ethnic cleansing, in Europe and beyond.
So that’s a big chunk of my summer reading list.
