[neverdem]

I didn't read the previous comments on the thread, just the article and the comments after your ping. Can you confirm that the author is a registered dem, but of the conservative persuasion? IIRC, that's what I read before, after I read the "Clash of Civilizations" article.

[Cacique]

Yes he is still a democrat. I think he is more of the Scoop Jackson variety than what passes for a democrat today. When I was in grad school his seminal work "Political Order in Changing Societies" was manadatory assigned reading in comparative politics by most leftie professors. I don't know what they make of him these days. He has been such a perennial authority in the field for so long that criticising him at this stage would seem awkwardly hypocritical since they put him on a pedestal. However, I have always found Huntoington to at least try to be an impartial academic and I think at times he surpirses himself in the conclusions he comes to.