Enrique A. Baloyra - Böcker

Here is a benchmark study of voter attitudes in a Latin American country. This volume is based on extensive survey research conducted during the Venezuelan elections of 1973. The methods employed by Baloyra and Martz to poll an "unpollable" society successfully challenge previously established paradigms.The authors interviewed a representative sample of over 1,500 voters to determine relationships between class, status, community, context, religion, ideology, and partisanship on the one hand and political attitudes and preferences on the other. They found that the Venezuelan electorate is defined by a series of contradictory tendencies, and they place their conclusions in the context of contemporary political science literature regarding class and party, ideology and party, and inequality and participation.

The transition to democracy has been a significant trend in Mediterranean Europe and Latin America during the last ten years. This book presents comparative analyses that offer a theoretical synthesis of the dynamics of recent democratization processes on both sides of the Atlantic. The contributors argue that transition is a response to fundamentally political factors. They describe how dictatorships deteriorate and collapse, how key events in the early stages of transition may encourage the military to withdraw from politics, and what the requirements are for a democratic outcome. The second part of the book focuses on the specific processes of transition and consolidation occurring in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Finally, a crucial dilemma of democratic consolidation—the issue of govemability— is examined within the framework of the relationship between social structure and political institutionalization.

This book presents comparative analyses that offer a theoretical synthesis of the dynamics of democratization processes on both sides of the Atlantic. It focuses on the specific processes of transition and consolidation occurring in Mediterranean Europe and the Southern Cone.

Baloyra argues that the deepening American involvement in what is basically a domestic conflict between Salvadorans has failed to eliminate the obstructionism and violence of the