What Makes Democracies Endure?

Issue Date January 1996
Volume 7
Issue 1
Page Numbers 39-55
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Read the full essay here.

About the Authors

Adam Przeworski

Adam Przeworski is Carroll and Milton Professor Emeritus of Politics at New York University. His books include Why Bother with Elections? (2018) and Crises of Democracy (2019). His seminal essay “What Makes Democracies Endure?” (with Fernando Limongi, José Antonio Cheibub, and Michael Alvarez) appeared in the January 1996 issue of the Journal of Democracy.

View all work by Adam Przeworski

Michael Alvarez

Michael Alvarez is assistant professor of political science at De Paul University.

View all work by Michael Alvarez

José Antonio Cheibub

José Antonio Cheibub is assistant professor of politics at the University of Pennsylvania.

View all work by José Antonio Cheibub

Fernando Limongi

Fernando Limongi is assistant professor of political science at the University of São Paulo.

View all work by Fernando Limongi

Further Reading

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Authoritarian Successor Parties

Why do significant numbers of people, after gaining the right to choose their leaders via free and fair elections, vote for political parties with deep roots in dictatorship, and how do…

Volume 15, Issue 2

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Constitution writers in ethnically or otherwise divided countries should focus on designing a system of power-sharing rules and institutions. Studies by political scientists point to a set of basic recommendations…

Volume 21, Issue 1

Why Democracy Needs a Level Playing Field

In some countries, democratic competition is undermined less by electoral fraud or repression than by a skewed playing field—unequal access to state institutions, resources, and the media.