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Press Release

Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism

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Published on Jan 16, 2003
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Democracy, Conflict, and Governance

The Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program is a leading source of independent policy research, writing, and outreach on global democracy, conflict, and governance. It analyzes and seeks to improve international efforts to reduce democratic backsliding, mitigate conflict and violence, overcome political polarization, promote gender equality, and advance pro-democratic uses of new technologies.

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Source: Carnegie


DEMOCRACY CHALLENGED
The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism

Marina Ottaway
 
Price: $21.95Price: $44.00
Paperback, 276 pp.Cloth, 276 pp.
ISBN: 0-87003-195-3ISBN: 0-87003-196-1
Pub. Date: Jan. 2003 
Order the book from Carnegie's distributor.
 

Table of Contents
Introduction (PDF)
Index

Advance Praise

About the Book
During the 1990s, international democracy promotion efforts led to the establishment of numerous regimes that cannot be easily classified as either authoritarian or democratic. They display characteristics of each—in short they are semi-authoritarian regimes.

These regimes pose a considerable challenge to U.S. policy makers because the superficial stability of many semi-authoritarian regimes usually masks severe problems that need to be solved lest they lead to a future crisis. Additionally, these regimes call into question some of the ideas about democratic transitions that underpin the democracy promotion strategies of the United States and other Western countries.

Despite their growing importance, semi-authoritarian regimes have not received systematic attention. Marina Ottaway examines five countries (Egypt, Azerbaijan, Venezuela, Croatia, and Senegal) that display the distinctive features of semi-authoritarianism and the special challenge each poses to policy makers. She explains why the dominant approach to democracy promotion isn't effective in these countries and concludes by suggesting alternative policies.

Issues covered include:
o Methods to retain power
o Ethnic and economic divisions
o State formation problems
o Political elites

About the Author
Marina Ottaway
is senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment. She is the coauthor of Democratic Mirage in the Middle East (Carnegie Endowment Policy Brief No. 20), the coeditor of Funding Virtue: Civil Society Aid and Democracy Promotion, and the author of Africa's New Leaders: Democracy or State Reconstruction?.


Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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