Editing Democratization (section)

==== Elite-opposition negotiations and contingency ====
Scholars such as [[Dankwart Rustow|Dankwart A. Rustow]],<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Rustow|first=Dankwart A.|date=1970|title=Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model|journal=Comparative Politics|volume=2|issue=3|pages=337–363|doi=10.2307/421307|issn=0010-4159|jstor=421307|url=http://revistas.usal.es/index.php/1130-2887/article/view/alh201468139168}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/transitionstodem0000unse|title=Transitions to Democracy|date=1999|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-50247-4|editor-last=Anderson|editor-first=Lisa|url-access=registration}}</ref> and [[Guillermo O'Donnell]] and [[Philippe C. Schmitter]] in their classic ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies'' (1986),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/transitions-authoritarian-rule-2|title=Transitions from Authoritarian Rule |date=September 1986 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|doi=10.56021/9780801831904 |isbn=9780801831904 |access-date=2019-12-23 |last1=O'Donnell |first1=Guillermo }}</ref> argued against the notion that there are structural "big" causes of democratization. These scholars instead emphasize how the democratization process occurs in a more contingent  manner that depends on the  characteristics and circumstances of the elites who ultimately oversee the shift from authoritarianism to democracy.

O'Donnell and Schmitter proposed a strategic choice approach to transitions to democracy that highlighted how they were driven by the decisions of different actors in response to a core set of dilemmas. The analysis centered on the interaction among four actors: the hard-liners and soft-liners who belonged to the incumbent authoritarian regime, and the moderate and radical oppositions against the regime. This book not only became the point of reference for a burgeoning academic literature on [[democratic transitions]], it was also read widely by political activists engaged in actual struggles to achieve democracy.<ref>Gerardo L. Munck, "Democratic Theory After ''Transitions From Authoritarian Rule''," ''Perspectives on Politics'' Vol. 9, Nº 2 (2011): 333–43.</ref>

Adam Przeworski, in ''Democracy and the Market'' (1991), offered the first analysis of the interaction between rulers and opposition in transitions to democracy using rudimentary [[game theory]]. and he emphasizes the interdependence of political and economic transformations.<ref>Adam Przeworski, ''Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991, Ch. 2.</ref>