Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book offers a series of propositions about processes of political transition, a model for the comparative analysis of the resolution of the "game" of transition, and a description of the "logic" of political transition. It provides a more taxonomic model of the causal dimensions of a crisis of transition adding a very strong European component. The book describes how the exertions of elites involved in a process of transition must result in outcomes congruent with the demands and aspirations of the masses. It explains why a society with a solid democratic tradition and a very sophisticated system of political parties has been unable to break down the personalistic, authoritarian regime of General Augusto Pinochet. The book discusses governability in reference to what has to be considered one of the most difficult cases in the hemisphere—Argentina.