| This project started in 1992, when two assistant professorsone who studied the collapse of authoritarianism in the Philippines and the other who researched democratic institutions in Honduras and Costa Ricatried to find common intellectual ground. In the process, we have gained not only a productive collaboration, but also an enriching one, as we applied our detailed knowledge of three cases to a larger number of countries in order to understand the democratization process in general. |
| Many people offered us their advice and support as we were struggling through this project. If our arguments make sense, it is due to them, for they read and reread our work and solicitously offered questions and comments. We would like to thank Barry Ames, Asher Arian, Frank Baumgartner, Eric Budd, Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, Scott Gates, Elizabeth Gerber, Anthony Gill, Bryan Jones, Jonathan Katz, Ken Kollman, Scott Mainwaring, Rebecca B. Morton, Susan Stokes, Douglas Warfel, Kurt Weyland, and Bruce Wilson. Special thanks go to Frank Baumgartner, Kathryn Firmin-Sellers, and Bryan Jones for reading the manuscript in its entirety and offering helpful suggestions and thoughtful criticisms along with generous portions of encouragement. |
| We would like to acknowledge the assistance of Rob Bohrer, Chen Yuguo, Peter Ferguson, and Hans Stockton, as well as Elizabeth Look and Shae Harvey. Rob Bohrer and Hans Stockton deserve particular credit for their hard work across the entire lifespan of this project. We are sure that they are as happy as we are that this project has ended, if only because it means that the weekly project meetings and frantic calls for citations and coding checks are over. We consider ourselves lucky to have benefited from their efforts and good humor. |
|
