Questions on Rueschemeyer, Stephens, and Stephens (1992), Capitalist Development and Democracy, pages 1-11, 36-48, 57-61, 79-83, and 121-132:
1. What is the goal of Rueschemeyer et al.’s (1992) study? How are they building on previous research?
2. What methods do the authors use? What cases do they examine?
3. How do Rueschemeyer et al. (1992) define democracy for the purposes of this study? How do they define a restricted democracy?
4. Based on their research, how do Rueschemeyer et al. (1992) explain how capitalist development tends to lead to democracy? Which class (or classes) play a role in fighting for democracy? Which class (or classes) are the most opposed to democracy?
5. How do Rueschemeyer et al. (1992) explain why some capitalist countries go down an authoritarian path instead of becoming more democratic over time? (Note: they are building on Barrington Moore’s theory).
6. Rueschemeyer et al. (1992) examine the case of the U.S. in particular to explain why the country moved in a democratic direction over time. According to their account, in what way(s) did voting rights in America expand between the revolutionary era and the Civil War? What factors contributed to this expansion?
7. How did voting rights in the U.S. contract and/or expand after the Civil War? How do the authors explain these changes in voting rights?
8. In general, how does the United States differ from the other cases that the authors examined? How do they seek to account for how it deviates from their overall theory?
