Lipset (Hoover Institution) and Lakin (PhD candidate, Harvard) aim to identify the central factors that engender the rise and perpetuation of democratic governments, hoping, in the wake of the global "third wave" of democratization beginning in the mid-1970s, that the century just begun will merit the book's title. The Democratic Century marks the culmination of Lipset's enormous and justly acclaimed series of studies of democracy and democratization; it was edited and completed by Lakin, following Lipset's disabling stroke. Part 1 develops a working definition of democracy in political and institutional terms; part 2 highlights "the socioeconomic and cultural origins of democracy and democratic stability," and part 3 addresses the question of why stable democratic government has proven so much more difficult to achieve in Latin America than in North America. The authors' chief explanation, reflecting Lipset's previous work, lies in the differing cultural histories of the two continents, reflecting the differences between the British and Iberian regimes that respectively colonized them, their differing patterns of colonial rule, and the diverse patterns of revolution by which the nations of north and south achieved independence. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All academic and general libraries. D. Schaefer College of the Holy Cross