Democracy and Modernity: International Colloquium on the Centenary of David Ben-Gurion

Democracy and Modernity presents a colloquium of scholars on the present state of democracy in many parts of the globe, in both developed and developing countries. Where does it stand firm, and where is it on shifting ground? What are the conditions necessary for the consolidation of democracy, and what difficulties face those countries where a stable democratic regime is still a hope for the future? How do the political traditions of a country’s past affect its ability to maintain democracy in the present? Recent changes in the nature of regimes in many previously non-democratic countries have made these questions all the more timely. The example of other countries that have made the shift from non-democratic or pre-democratic to democratic regimes in the recent past will surely prove relevant to those encountering a similar complex of problems today. Contributions to the volume include those of Seymour Martin Lipset, on conditions of the democratic order and social change; Ralf Dahrendorf, on the European experience; Shlomo Avineri, responding to Lipset and Dahrendorf; Shlomo Ben Ami, on Southern Europe; Carlo Rossetti, on the rule of law; Luis Roniger, on the consolidation of democracy in Southern Europe and Latin America; Myron Weiner, On India; Erik Cohen, on Thailand; Ben-Ami Shillony, on the political tradition of Japan; Naomi Chazan, on Africa; and Metin Heper, on the Turkish case. The Introduction and Concluding Remarks by S.N. Eisenstadt set the individual presentations within the time-frame of global developments since World War II and within the comprehensive context of the political culture of the modern state.