GIAMPIERO CAMA

Le vie alla poliarchia. Una ricognizione critica della letteratura

N. 185

Summary — For the last half-century, social scientists have investigated the factors leading to the formation and consolidation of democracies, or polyarchies. This has resulted in a large, complex literature, which the author tries here to analyze and systematize using the following criteria: (a) the temporal, diachronic or static perspective; (b) the types of variables; (c) the level of analysis - whether macro or micro; (d) the presence or lack of reference to the international environment. On this basis, three general perspectives can be singled out. First, there is the the socio-centric perspective, which can in turn be sub-divided in terms of the explicative factors most used (economic factors, cultural factors, or class structure). Secondly, there is the process-centered perspective, wich takes greater account of the modes and sequences which characterize the different winding roads to polyarchy. Thirdly, there is the state-centered perspective, which shows greater sensitivity to the explicative weight of political institutional set-ups and to the strictly political dynamics of this phenomenon. The author claims that this tradition, once further elaborated, can produce a number of valuable theoretical and methodological suggestions for future research: first, that of adopting a non-schematic approach to the problem which tends to avoid deterministic and mono-casual explanations; secondly, that of emphasizing the political-institutional variables; thirdly, that of attempting to connect the structural variables with the behaviours and strategies through which this and other political processes are articulated; fourthy, and finally, that of focussing on the independence of the actions of the internal members of a regime and those of its external "challengers".