Capitalist Development and Democracy

"This is one of the finest recent works of comparative sociology. The authors cover a vast canvas of the world's countries, systematically reviewing the stance of various social classes to democracy over the last one hundred years. The general conclusion -that democracy has progressed because the class most favoring it, the working class, has increased while the class most opposed, the landowning nobility, has decreased- is carefully yet emphatically made. I can recomment the book most strongly to all those interested in the development of democracy -in the past and in the world today."
- Michael Mann, University of California, Los Angeles

"An absolutely remarkable book in its scope, the immense knowledge displayed by the authors, and the talent and care with which they theoretically underpin their analyses. In the best tradition of Max Weber and Barrington Moore, this book is a fundamental contribution, historical and comparative, to the perhaps never so important question of the interplay between capitalism and democracy."
- Gulliermo O'Donnell, University of Notre Dame

"Rueschemeyer, Stephens, and Stephens have given us just what we need to move the debate on democracy forward: a meticulously constructed comparative historical model of the social and economic roots of formal democracy joined with a hopeful but tough-minded analysis of the difficulties of moving from formal to substantive democracy. Anyone who wants to argue about the causes and consequences of electoral democracy must take this book into account before proceeding further."
- Peter Evans, University of California, Berkeley