Citing Zimbabwe, Russia, Singapore, Belarus, Cameroon, and Egypt, among other countries, Schedler (political science, Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económica, Mexico) argues that a large number of governments have established institutional facades in order to hide realities of authoritarian governance. He presents 13 papers that comparatively examine authoritarian democracies, with each chapter devoted to a particular analytical question. Opening chapters discuss basic conceptual problems and measurement issues in the emerging field. Other papers examine questions of political actor formation in ruling and opposition parties in Taiwan, Mexico, and sub-Saharan Africa. Cases from Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are used to illustrate issues of core conflicts and strategic choices facing political actors on the electoral battlefield. Finally, the remaining papers look at exogenous institutional and international that influence electoral authoritarian regime dynamics. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)