State Formation and Democracy in Latin America, 1810-1900. FERNANDO LÓPEZ-ALVES: Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.

Abstract

The creation of a stable democratic regime is in part contingent on how effective political leaders within a territory are at building a state, and at consolidating and legitimizing the state's power. At first glance, this relationship seems paradoxical. How could the creation of a democratic regime be affected by the formation of the state, which is a unit committed to protecting its independence from society's dictates, when democracy is driven by the proposition that the state is a decision-making unit that must do what society mandates?