在本书中，斯考切波要揭示的是，国家结构、国际力量和阶级关系这三种要素是如何结合在一起，共同导致了社会革命转型的起源与成就。从18世纪90年代的法国到20世纪70年代的越南，社会革命虽然很少发生，但却在现代世界历史上具有无可否认的重要性。《国家与社会革命》提供了一种新的参照框架，以分析这种革命的原因、冲突和后果。而且、该书对三个主要的案例进行了深入而严肃的比较历史分析，这三个案例是：从1787年到19世纪初期的法国革命、从1917年到20世纪30年代的俄国革命和从1911年到20世纪60年代的中国革命。    作者认为，现有的革命理论，不适合用来解释革命的实际历史模式。因此，作者力促我们采用一种新的分析视角。她主张进行结构性论而非意志论的分析，强调跨国性世界-历史背景对国内政治冲突的重要作用。首先，她坚持认为，国家应该被看成是一套行政和强制组织、在阶级控制和阶级利益面前具有潜在的自主性，因此，在解释社会革命时，必须把国家置于核心地位。    为了解释法国、俄国、和中国旧制度的导向革命性政治危机的内在矛盾，斯考切波主要集中考察了国家在两个方面的基本关系：一方面是国家的统治者及其官员与国际竞争者之间的关系；另一方面是国家的统治者及其官员与支配阶级之间的关系。在解释革命的后果时，她着重关注的是，在阶级冲突和反革命军事威胁的背景下，革命领导集团建立新国家组织的方式。在革命政权得以巩固之后，她强调的是国家权力被用来改造社会的方式。在社会革命转型的模式方面，法国、俄国和中国被当成是基本类似的案例。对那些把法国革命当成是典型的资产阶级革命、或者是把俄国革命基本上看成是无产阶级的社会主义革命的理论家而言，作者的这种观点必然会引出激烈的争论。

Review "This landmark contribution to the comparative study of political regimes will be widely read and cited. In an epic act of theoretical synthesis, Levitsky and Way weave careful empirical research on three-dozen countries across five world regions into a convincing account of patterns of regime change. In distinguishing democratic transitions from a range of authoritarian outcomes, they reach nuanced conclusions about the relative explanatory influence of international factors (linkage and leverage) and domestic power politics (rulers versus oppositions). Above all, they help us understand how autocrats learn to live with elections. Strongly recommended." - Michael Bratton, University Distinguished Professor of Political Science and African Studies, Michigan State University "This is a brilliant and truly pathbreaking book that should be closely studied by any serious student of democracy or comparative politics. Its precise conceptualization, striking theory, rigorous comparative methodology, and breathtaking range of case study evidence distinguish it as the most important study of political regimes and regime transitions in a generation." - Larry Diamond, Stanford University "Competitive Authoritarianism establishes Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way as the Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan of their generation. In the tradition of Linz and Stepan, Levitsky and Way offer an abundance of theoretical and conceptual innovation as well as a trove of empirical material drawn from broad swaths of the globe. The book is as elegantly written as it is theoretically creative. It is written by and for professional social scientists; yet undergraduates and the attentive public will be able to digest the book's central argument and findings with ease. This is what social science should look like." - M. Steven Fish, University of California, Berkeley "This is the most anticipated book in comparative politics in more than a decade. Written in a single authorial voice, Levitsky and Way's arguments about the distinct trajectories of competitive authoritarian regimes are theoretically grounded, conceptually nuanced, geographically wide ranging, and empirically well supported. I expect this book to have a major impact on the field for many years to come." - Marc Morjé Howard, Georgetown University "Levitsky and Way's book makes two major contributions to research on political regime change. First, by developing the notion of competitive authoritarianism, it engages in a sustained effort to provide a clear and theoretically fertile conception of a particular subset of political regimes belonging to the vague class of 'hybrid' regimes. Second, it offers the as yet most sophisticated and subtle effort to interweave domestic and international explanations of political regime change with provocative implications for run-of-the-mill theories, whether based on economic development, inequality, or institutions." - Herbert Kitschelt, Duke University "Regimes that blend meaningful elections and illicit incumbent advantage are not merely resting points on the road to democracy; Levitsky and Way guide us along the multiple paths these regimes can take and provide powerful reasoning to explain why nations follow these distinct paths. This deeply insightful analysis of an important subset of post-Cold War regimes is conceptually innovative and precise, empirically ambitious, and theoretical agile, moving fluidly between international and domestic causes of regime dynamics. Read it to understand the dynamics of contemporary hybrid regimes; then read it again to appreciate its many lessons for our general understanding of regime change." - David Waldner, University of Virginia Product Description Competitive authoritarian regimes - in which autocrats submit to meaningful multiparty elections but engage in serious democratic abuse - proliferated in the post-Cold War era. Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.