Revolution and Reaction
Revolution and Reaction
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Why did so many Latin American leftists believe they could replicate the Cuban Revolution in their own countries, and why did so many rightists fear the spread of Communism? Cognitive-psychological insights about people's distorted inferences and skewed interest calculations explain why the left held exaggerated hopes and why the right experienced excessive dread. The resulting polarization provoked a powerful backlash in which the right uniformly defeated the left. To forestall the feared spread of revolution, the military in many countries imposed authoritarian regimes and brutally suppressed left-wingers. Overly worried about the advance of Cuban-inspired radicalism as well, the United States condoned and supported the installation of dictatorship, but Latin American elites took the main initiative in these regressive regime changes. With a large number of primary and secondary sources, this book documents how the misperceptions on both sides of the ideological divide thus played a crucial role in the frequent destruction of democracy.
- Examines how progressive initiatives provoked a reactionary backlash and highlights paradoxical political events and their tragic consequences
- Demonstrates the cognitive distortions and deviations from rationality that affected a wide range of political forces
- Speaks to the ongoing debate about rationality in political science and thus makes a theoretical contribution that goes far beyond the specific substantive topic
Reviews & endorsements
‘Revolution and Reaction is an excellent book by a leading scholar.’ Scott Mainwaring, Democratization
Product details
May 2019Hardback
9781108483551
320 pages
235 × 157 × 21 mm
0.57kg
3 b/w illus. 1 table
Available
Table of Contents
- Part I. Theoretical Considerations:
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The difficulty of accounting for reverse waves
- 3. A theory of reactionary waves
- Part II. Revolution and the Reactionary Backlash in Latin America:
- 4. Diffusion effects of the Cuban Revolution
- 5. Waves of radicalization and reaction
- 6. The imposition of institutional authoritarianism
- 7. Horizontal diffusion and vertical promotion in the autocratic wave
- Part III. Comparative Perspectives and Theoretical Conclusions:
- 8. Reactionary waves across history
- 9. Conclusion: theoretical reflections.
