Larry Diamond is senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Jonathan Hartlyn is Kenneth J. Reckford Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The late Juan J. Linz was Sterling Professor of Political and Social Science at Yale University. His work on authoritarianism, the breakdown of democratic regimes, and transitions to democracy had a wide-ranging impact not only on scholarship, but also in the world of politics. Seymour Martin Lipset holds the Hazel Chair of Public Policy at George Mason University.

Extensively revised since the first edition was published in 1989, this analytically balanced and empirically rich volume thoroughly examines the historical, cultural, social, economic, political, and international factors that affect both the prospects for and the nature of political democracy in Latin America.

The book reflects improvements in democratic trends in some countries, but also the erosion of democratic advances in others, with substantial malaise regarding key political actors and institutions and continuing concerns about the impact on democratic consolidation of economic constraints, weak states, judicial inefficacy, and high degrees of inequality. A comprehensive introduction precedes the nine country chapters, which follow a similar format to facilitate comparisons.