Democratic Transitions: Exploring the Structural Sources of the Fourth Wave

With the widespread movement toward democratization that characterized the first post-Cold War decade, why did some nondemocratic regimes undergo a transition toward a democratic political system, but others not? Why have some transitions succeeded completely, but others resulted in only limited political reform? Renske Doorenspleet addresses these questions, providing a systematic theoretical and empirical enalysis of variations in transitions to democracy. Doorenspleet interweaves a discussion of key concepts, the major theoretical approaches to democratization, and statistical analyses to illuminate the influence of structural-primarily economic and social-factors on democratic transitions. She also explores the notion of “waves” of democratization. Though focusing on the 1989-2001 period, she offers a wealth of new evidence covering two centuries of democratic transitions around the globe.