A Conversation with Albert O. Hirschman (1994)

“The relentless search for regularities leaves me cold. Prescriptions for democracy often fail. I am interested in ways in which countries find ways of their own toward acceptable political orders. Paths to democracy are in a sense unique and not reproducible, or even recommended in many cases. Chile’s strange road to its present vigorous democracy, for example (or Pinochet), can hardly be recommended… Yet I am always interested when a country travels along some unique way or path. Something can be learned from the experience, but it does not constitute a recipe. From the very beginning I have questioned the idea of a fixed number of ‘obstacles’ or ‘prerequisites’ to development or democracy. My work is very different from much social science and from the search for global or universal solutions. Yet the discovery of a unique path does raise the hope that another extraordinary discovery can be found in spite of all the ‘vicious cycles.’ This is my ‘bias for hope’” (Albert O. Hirschman).

Díaz-Quiñones, Arcadio, and Thomas Bogenschild. “A Conversation with Albert O. Hirschman.” Boletín, vol. 4, no. 1, 1994, pp. 1, 4, 5, 8.