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.

Introduction: Politics, Society, and Democracy in Latin America—L. Diamond, J. Hartlyn, and J. Linz.
Argentina—C.H. Waisman.
Brazil—B. Lamounier.
Chile—A. Valenzuela.
Colombia—J. Hartlyn and J. Dugas.
Peru—C. McClintock.
Venezuela—D.H. Levine and B. Crisp.
Costa Rica—J. Booth.
The Dominican Republic—R. Espinal and J.Hartlyn.
Mexico—D.C. Levy and K. Bruhn.

"A thoughtful, well-constructed volume, comprehensive in terms of the countries it covers, combining a high level of theoretical analysis with detailed, well-sustained empirical case studies."