"In this innovative volume Francisco Gonzalez has set out a bold comparative framework aimed at explaining how severe international economic shocks and downturns can feed into the destabilization of liberal democratic regimes. Although the core of his evidence is drawn from the 'southern cone' of Latin America (comparing the 1930s with the 1980s) his framework generates a broader understanding. It can be applied to well-established and 'developed' democracies as well as to other, perhaps more precarious, South American counterparts. And it can be extended to the global economic crisis that began in 2008 and that has yet to run its course. Moreover, although appropriately cautious about extrapolation from the past, Gonzalez highlights some provisional grounds for anticipating that liberal democracies may emerge successfully from the current severe economic setback."