Title

Democratic Political Stability Some Traditional Hypotheses Reexamined

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1972

Publication Title

Comparative Political Studies

Abstract

This paper is a.companion piece to “Democratic Political Stability: A Methodological Note” which recently appeared in these pages.’ The present article is concerned with a discussion of the stability performance of twenty selected democratic polities, and is an attempt t o answer a basic question: how, if at all, can one account for the very real and observable differences in stability levels of democracies? This objective is accomplished by examining several of the major and most influential traditional hypotheses found in the literature dealing with an “explanation” of stability and by examining the relationship of these variables to the proposed measure of democratic stability. The reviewed hypotheses include economic development and processes, Roman Catholicism, party systems, cultural homogeneity, and democratic attainment.

Original Citation

Leon Hurwitz. (1972). Democratic Political Stability Some Traditional Hypotheses Reexamined. Comparative Political Studies, 4, 4, 476-490.

DOI

10.1177/001041407200400405

Volume

4

Issue

4

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