Democracy in Latin America: “Minimalist” in Concept and in Achievement

This essay reviews the following works: Reflections on Uneven Democracies: The Legacy of Guillermo O’Donnell. Edited by Daniel Brinks, Marcelo Leiras, and Scott Mainwaring. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Pp. viii + 422. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 9781421414607 Problems Confronting Contemporary Democracies: Essays in Honor of Alfred Stepan. Edited by Douglas Chalmers and Scott Mainwaring. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2012. Pp. xii + 487. $75.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780268023720. The Resilience of the Latin American Right. Edited by Juan-Pablo Luna and Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014. Pp. xi + 377. $34.95 paper. ISBN: 9781421413907. Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall. By Scott Mainwaring and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. Pp. xiv + 353 pages. $35.99 paper. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780521152242. Democracy in Latin America: Between Hope and Despair. By Ignacio Walker. Translated by Krystin Krause, Holly Bird, and Scott Mainwaring. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013. Pp. xvi + 262. $38.00 paper. ISBN: 9780268019723