Taking its cue from the contentious politics approach, Section 7.1 urges comparativists to study the causal agency of individuals (Thesis 1), groups (Thesis 2), and democracies (Thesis 3). Section 7.2 suggests that the three types of collective agency be examined in conjunction with three corresponding moral dilemmas: ought/is (Thesis 4), freedom/power (Thesis 5), and democracy/causality (Thesis 6).

CAUSAL AGENCY

People have causal agency with respect to democratization. This section begins by urging comparativists to explore how causal mechanisms and processes operate at the level of the individual.

Slighting the importance of values and beliefs, intentions and motives, and evaluations and judgments, Moore (1966: 421–22, 485–87) famously focused on material structure. Rejecting theories explaining how culture intervenes between structure and action, he offered a thin theory of human agency. The texts examined here also avoid this important piece of the causal puzzle behind democracy’s origins.