The Way Out: How to Overcome Toxic Polarization

Abstract

eralized for other contexts that face similar degrees of violence and inequalities. The book has a clear writing style and structure. The author is highly-knowledgeable on the topic and the book presents a comprehensive discussion of previous research making clearer what we know to date about these matters and what contributions the book brings to the literature. The book reflects much creativity and originality from the first to the last chapter. It advances an original theory of institutional change that explains how and why the structural power of the police influences policy agendas and societal dynamics. The latter influences the politicians’ willingness to maintain or oppose the persistence of coercive practices and structures. The results are based on extensive efforts to gather and analyze data from the ground and official documents. To answer the research question, the author uses process tracing eloquently, almost as a textbook example for the use of data and alternative explanations. The conclusions explain in a compelling manner how and why its findings could be generalized to other contexts with similar degrees of violence and social inequalities. The book has some points that could have been approached more rigorously to increase the proposed approach’s transparency and replicability. For example, a more detailed and nuanced discussion about the collection and selection of data would be very relevant for a broad range of readers. The source of some data and how the interviewees were selected and approached remain unclear. Also, while the author explained rigorously how the cases were selected, it still remains unclear if the selected cases are indeed the most relevant for Latin America. The author’s efforts to bring this book to life are commendable. Her approach advances new knowledge in the field of democratization and the persistence of violence in new democracies. The empirical and theoretical contributions of this book address large audiences that vary from academics to practitioners, policy-makers, and the broader public. Although the book fully achieved its ambitions, it definitely opens the door for further research. Some of the possible avenues are acknowledged by the author along the lines of citizens’ preferences towards some of the police’s actions in the new democracies.