Employing a framework that focuses on the actions and choices of elites in creating consolidated democracies, a distinguished group of scholars examines Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Without ignoring the roles of mass publics and institutions, the authors conclude that in independent states with long records of political instability and authoritarian rule, democratic consolidation requires the achievement of elite "consensual unity"—that is, agreement among all politically important elites on the worth of existing democratic institutions and respect for democratic rules-of-the-game, coupled with increased "structural integration" among those elites.