The Promise of Power

Welcome to literary salon with Maya Tudor (Oxford) in conversation with Michael Alvarez (UiB).

Following independence, Pakistan and India embarked upon radically different political paths of political regime stability. Pakistan has alternated between democratic and autocratic spells, while India has built a stable democracy. In The Promise of Power: The Origins of Democracy in India and Autocracy in Pakistan (Cambridge University Press, 2013), Maya Tudor identifies two key causal factors. She argues that the types of social classes that led the independence movement and the strength of the dominant political party at independence made the difference.

Alvarez and Tudor will talk about the richly historical evidence presented in Tudor's book’s comparative analysis. The discussion will focus on matters related to research design, data collection, field work, and the analysis of qualitative data. UiB and CMI students and researchers are encouraged to bring their respective country and regional expertise to the event in order to contribute to a broader, comparative discussion during the Q&A portion of the event.

Maya Tudor is an associate professor of government and public policy at the University of Oxford. Her research investigates the origins of stable, democratic and effective states across the developing world with a particular emphasis upon South Asia.

Welcome!