I see that Policy Review has a new piece out called “The Roots of Democracy.” I’ve only had a chance to skim it, but it puts forward a view rather like the one I took today in my posts on Terror v Democracy. Charles Boix says that it’s not impossible to bring democracy to other cultures, but it’s much tougher than some democratizers think. The key, says Boix, is underlying economic change. My quick skim leaves me thinking that Boix downplays culture too much and/or misses the degree to which the economic changes he wants are part and parcel of culture. Still, this looks like an interesting effort along the lines of: “We can democratize, but not through elections alone.”