The Fate of Young Democracies

Ethan B. Kapstein is Paul Dubrule Professor of Sustainable Development at INSEAD and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington, DC. He has also held academic appointments at the University of Minnesota and Harvard and served as an officer in the U.S. Navy and a Principal Administrator at the OECD. He is the author or editor of ten books and scores of professional and policy articles in the field of international political economy. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Kapstein has received awards from the Rockefeller, Russell Sage, and Smith Richardson Foundations, and he has served as a consultant to many organizations in the public and private sectors. Nathan Converse is a PhD candidate in economics at the London School of Economics. Previously he was a Research Assistant at the Center for Global Development and at the International Institute of Finance.

• 1. What makes young democracies different?; 2. Why do young democracies fail?; 3. Are some regions more 'democracy-friendly'?; 4. Is democracy promotion effective?; 5. Where do we go from here?.

"The Fate of Young Democracies is timely and intensely relevant. Though the challenges confronting young democracies have long occupied political scientists and economists, this is the first book to analyze them systematically. The authors reach a conclusion that is of utmost importance for both students and those in the professional community who are concerned with development and support for democratic institutions: the incentives of elected officials to pursue public policies in the public interest must play a central role in any assessment of democratic consolidation." --Philip Keefer, Lead Economist, Development Research Group, The World Bank