New Issue of the Journal of Democracy Looks At Ethnic Power-Sharing Arrangements, The Legacy Of Nelson Mandela, And How Monarchies Can Evolve Toward Democracy

WASHINGTON, April 15, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "In severely divided societies with ethnically based parties, ordinary majority rule usually results in ethnic domination," writes Donald L. Horowitz in "Ethnic Power Sharing: Three Big Problems." Although power-sharing institutions can ameliorate this problem, Horowitz explains why attempts to establish and maintain such institutions face formidable difficulties.

Nelson Mandela's success in guiding South Africa's transition to a nonracial democracy after years of apartheid rule, however, proves that even the most daunting challenges can sometimes be overcome. In "Mandela's Legacy at Home and Abroad," Princeton N. Lyman, who served as US ambassador to South Africa during the country's democratic transition, considers not only Mandela's domestic triumphs but also the hurdles he faced during his presidency in seeking to promote democracy abroad.

Elsewhere in this issue, Alfred Stepan, Juan J. Linz, and Juli F. Minoves draw our attention to the role that monarchies have played in the evolution of democracy. The authors contend that the European experience can teach us something about whether and how Arab monarchies might aid or resist democratic development. Scholars have tended to focus on the distinction between "ruling" and "constitutional" monarchies. In a highly original essay on which eminent political scientist Juan J. Linz was working when he passed away in October 2013, he and his coauthors add a new category to the typology: "Democratic Parliamentary Monarchies."

Also in this issue are a cluster of essays on the political landscape in South Asia, including individual articles on Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives; an essay on Freedom House's Freedom in the World report for 2013; and two pieces on Zimbabwe—one examining the effects of the power-sharing government (2009 to 2013) on the current political dynamics in the country, and the other detailing the complicated and pernicious entanglement of Zimbabwe's military, state, and ruling party.

To see the complete table of contents, please visit our website at www.journalofdemocracy.org.

The Journal of Democracy is published quarterly in January, April, July, and October. Members of the press who wish to receive electronic access to the current issue should contact Brent Kallmer at [email protected]. To subscribe to the Journal of Democracy, visit https://www.press.jhu.edu/cgi-bin/order.cgi?oc_id=32. For more information, please visit the Journal of Democracy online or e-mail us at [email protected].

SOURCE Journal of Democracy