The thirteen original essays in this collection evaluate the role of elections in the development of democracy in the nations of Central America: Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Panama. Exploring the region's transformation over the last fifteen years from dictatorial to electoral rule, this volume of new essays is a major expansion and reworking of Elections and Democracy in Central America, published by the UNC Press in 1989. The essays reevaluate the status of democratization in each country over the last six years, including the transition to civilian...

Political scientists for more than two decades have worried about declining levels of citizens' support for their regimes (legitimacy), but have failed to empirically link this decline to the survival or breakdown of democracy. This apparent paradox is the "legitimacy puzzle," which this book addresses by examining political legitimacy's structure, sources, and effects. With exhaustive empirical analysis of high-quality survey data from eight Latin American nations, it confirms that legitimacy exists as multiple, distinct dimensions. It finds that one's position in society, education,...

Political scientists for more than two decades have worried about declining levels of citizens support for their regimes (legitimacy), but have failed to empirically link this decline to the survival or breakdown of democracy. This apparent paradox is the legitimacy puzzle, which this book addresses by examining political legitimacy s structure, sources, and effects. With exhaustive empirical analysis of high-quality survey data from eight Latin American nations, it confirms that legitimacy exists as multiple, distinct dimensions. It finds that one s position in society, education, knowledge,...