Guillermo O'Donnell here brings together a collection of significant recent essays in which he considers both the method for and substance of critiques of democracies. While progress has been made in democratization, the authoritarian legacy hangs as a shadow over that advancement. O'Donnell engages in his analysis while keeping a firm gaze on that dangerous past. O'Donnell's work has influenced a generation of political scientists. The essays in this volume bring forward and develop many of the ideas presented in his earlier collection, Counterpoints: Selected Essays on Authoritarianism and Democracy

"For many years, O'Donnell has explored the various ways in which the democracies of Latin America--many of them new--failed to meet expectations held out for them by citizens, analysts, and political actors. The articles collected here represent some of the very best thinking by an author who remains one of the most creative and insightful political theorists, whose work is deeply grounded in empirical observation, whose ideas are consistently robust, and whose reflections can be both provocative and of great practical use." --Charles D. Kenney, University of Oklahoma