Research on the economic origins of democracy and dictatorship has shifted away from the impact of growth and turned toward the question of how different patterns of growth - equal or unequal - shape regime change. This book offers a new theory of the historical relationship between economic modernization and the emergence of democracy on a global scale, focusing on the effects of land and income inequality. Contrary to most mainstream arguments, Ben W. Ansell and David J. Samuels suggest that democracy is more likely to emerge when rising, yet politically disenfranchised, groups demand more influence because they have more to lose, rather than when threats of redistribution to elite interests are low.

Review
Successfully traces the interaction between domestic and international actors during regime transitions in a wide range of cases from the 1970s to the 2000s. Each chapter provides a font of primary research very rarely found in edited volumes of this sort. In particular, this book offers a unique source of detail on U.S. foreign policy towards a wide range of countries at various points over the last thirty years. Nowhere is so much detail on so many cases available in a single book.
(Lucan Way, University of Toronto )
Book Description
Fifteen case studies by scholars and practitioners demonstrate the synergy between domestic and international influences that can precipitate democratic transitions.