Radicals, Reformers, and Reactionaries: The Prisoner's Dilemma and the Collapse of Democracy in Latin America. (book reviews)

In a review of the literature on comparative politics, provocatively entitled "Paradigms and Sand Castles," Barbara Geddes (1991) bemoans the transient nature of the field. Rather than being rejected, theories are being discarded, she declares; as new phenomena capture our attention, so do new approaches to the study of politics. The field thus appears to be driven by fads. Geddes concludes her unflattering portrayal by pointing to a series of new entrants into the study of comparative politics, including rational choice theory.

As evidenced by the books under review, in ...

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