Yashar, Deborah J. 1963–

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YASHAR, Deborah J. 1963–

PERSONAL: Born 1963. Education: University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, 219 Bendheim Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Educator and author. Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, associate professor of politics and international affairs.

AWARDS, HONORS: Fellowships from Fulbright, Joint Committee on Latin-American Studies of the American Council of Learned Societies/Social Science Research Council, U.S. Institute of Peace, Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies at University of Notre Dame, and Princeton's Class of 1934 University Preceptorship.

WRITINGS:

Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s–1950s, Stanford University Press (Stanford, CA), 1997.

Contesting Citizenship in Latin America: The Rise of Indigenous Movements and the Postliberal Challenge, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Also contributor to books; contributor to periodicals, including World Politics and Comparative Politics.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Civil Wars and Peace Accords: Prospects for Democracy.

SIDELIGHTS: An associate professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University, Deborah J. Yashar focuses her research on the comparative study of democracies. In 1997's title Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s–1950s Yashar takes an historical look at democracy and authoritarianism in these two Central American countries. Fabrice Edouard Lehoucq, writing in the Journal of Latin-American Studies, noted that Yashar's thesis is that "the political divergence of Costa Rica and Guatemala after the 1940s is a product of the way elites responded to subaltern classes in the 1940s and 1950s." Lehoucq further commented that Yashar explains how Costa Rican "dominant classes divided in the face of popular demands for participation, [while] in Guatemala, by contrast, they remained sealed. The result was the institutionalisation of Costa Rican democracy and the continuation of authoritarianism in Guatemala."

Mitchell A. Seligson, reviewing Demanding Democracy in the American Political Science Review, commented that Yashar's "richly detailed and nuanced case studies of Guatemala and Costa Rica should give pause to those who have been disparaging the utility of area studies research in political science." Seligson also praised Demanding Democracy as "well-written and carefully researched," noting that it "rests its scholarship on a wealth of secondary and archival sources, coupled with transcriptions of the author's illuminating interviews with key political figures who participated in many of the events described." Lowell Gudmundson, writing in the Canadian Journal of History, felt that Yashar's book "will be widely read by both social scientists and historians and each group of readers will find much to admire in its pages." Further praise came from Comparative Political Studies contributor Gretchen Casper, who observed the "richness of Yashar's research and the significance of her findings." Kirk S. Bowman, writing in the Hispanic American Historical Review, approved of the "innovative and provocative theory" found in Yashar's "accessible and important work."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, September, 1998, Mitchell A. Seligson, review of Demanding Democracy: Reform and Reaction in Costa Rica and Guatemala, 1870s–1950s, p. 740.

Canadian Journal of History, August, 1998, Lowell Gudmundson, review of Demanding Democracy, p. 335.

Comparative Political Studies, February, 1998, Gretchen Casper, review of Demanding Democracy, p. 125.

Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 1999, Kirk S. Bowman, review of Demanding Democracy, p. 582.

Journal of Latin American Studies, October, 1998, Fabrice Edouard Lehoucq, review of Demanding Democracy, p. 663.