A Democracy Bibliography, As Prepared By Larry Diamond

My own book, Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation (1999), which brings together much of the political science literature on democratic development, with discussion of the meaning of democracy, liberal democracy, global trends in democracy, performance and consolidation of new democracies, federalism and decentralization, political culture, civil society, and the future of democracy.

The Journal of Democracy anthology, The Global Resurgence of Democracy (1996) This is full of very good and accessible material on what democracy is, why it is to be valued, and what the different institutional options are for arranging it. The discussion of different institutional options in this book and in other things we have published will contribute much to the constitutional debate. I recommend that your translators translate at least chapters 1, 3, 4, 7, the entire section II on Institutional Choices and Designs, and chapters 20, and 23 from the section on civil society. (There is a more extended version of chapter 19 on civil society in my book, above, chapter 6).

The newer JOD anthology, The Global Divergence of Democracies (2001). I recommend especially chapter 1 by Amartya Sen (Democracy as a Universal Value—an eloquent statement of this by a nobel-Prize-winning economist), chapter 2 on Muslims and Democracy by a major Arab intellectual, chapters 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 and 26. The following chapters are particularly vital for Iraq: 15, which discusses the elements of free and fair elections, 16, which is one of the most important recent academic statements on federalism, and 20, which spells out the elements of civilian control of the military. These should be widely circulated among educated people in Iraq.

The Self-Restraining State: Power and Accountability in New Democracies, which talks about institutions of “horizontal accountability” to control the abuse of power by government actors. I particularly recommend as very useful for the current context in Iraq chapters 2, 3, the whole section on electoral administration (chapters 5-8), chapters 9, 12, 13, 16, 17 and 20.

Islam and Democracy in the Middle East, our most recent Journal of Democracy anthology. If at all possible—for obvious reasons—I would recommend translating as much of this book as possible into Arabic, as it could be marvelously helpful for teaching at the university level in Iraq.

I also have for you several recent issues of the Journal of Democracy, and from these I recommend translating the following:

October 2003, Donald Horowitz on electoral systems; Steven Finkel on civic education; and Saad Eddin Ibrahim on Reviving Middle Eastern Liberalism. The Horowitz essay is the single best article-length piece I have seen explaining different types of electoral systems, and will be immensely useful to the constitutional debate in this country, so I hope some early priority can be given to that.

July 2003: Alfred Stepan on the Arab and Muslim Democracy Gaps, Roll and Talbott on Economic Development, Pierre du Toit on Post-Settlement Settlements, and the pieces on Iraq by Kanan Makiya and the Democratic Principles Working Group, but these latter two may well already be available in Arabic.

April 2003: Donald Horowitz on “The Cracked Foundations of the Right to Secede” and perhaps the two pieces on turkey. The four pieces on liberal Islam will be found in the above book on Islam and Democracy.

My article on “Universal Democracy?”

The article by Alfred Stepan, “The World’s Religious Systems and Democracy: Crafting the Twin Tolerations”