Theories of Democratic Consolidation: A Mexico-Germany Comparison
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commitment in the short term, ensuring that public commitment will follow in the long
term. If the still-hesitant Mexican political commitment wavers and fails, public commitment may not be sufficiently strong to cushion it. If political commitment fails, so
will Mexican democracy.
Political commitment seems to have played a pivotal role in both examples. To determine whether this is representative of a wider trend, a broad range of additional empirical studies are required. However, the intention of this article has not been to establish
whether bottom-up or top-down consolidation has the greatest impact, but simply to
synthesize the existing literature and research to provide a useful framework of analysis.
It is believed that by using the criteria set forth in this article, such analysis is readily
replicable, and can be used by both policy makers and academics to assess which measures are needed to improve democratic consolidation in other transitory states.
Bibliography
Almond, G. A. and Verba, S. (1963) The Civic Culture. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Camp, R. A. (2004) ‘Mexico’s Armed Forces Marching to a Democratic Tune?’ in Middlebrook, K. (ed.) Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico. London: Institute of Latin
American Studies, pp. 353-372.
Camp, R. A. (2007) Politics in Mexico: The Democratic Consolidation. London: The
Institute of Latin American Studies.
Camp, R. A. (2011) Mexico: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York: Oxford University Press.
Chappell, L. H. (2004) ‘Building the Fourth Estate: Media Opening and Democratization in Mexico’ in Middlebrook, Kevin J. (ed.) Dilemmas of Political Change in Mexico. London: Institute of Latin American Studies, pp. 373-402.