Assessing the third wave democracies

Beginning with the liberalization of authoritarian rule in Portugal in 1974 and extending into the 1990s, dozens of countries around the world have completed transitions to democracy. The four books reviewed here represent the state of the art in a significant body of work that assesses how these "third wave" democracies have fared in the post-transition phase.' The books' theoretical scope is impressive, including such topics as electoral systems, civil-military relations, presidential versus parliamentary rule, and the effects of economic reform and development on democracy and vice versa.

The empirical domain of these books is equally stunning. Through broad comparative studies, these works attempt to facilitate theory building by extending the range of empirical cases of democratization. Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan go beyond their work on South America and Southern Europe to include comparisons with Eastern Europe and Russia. Larry Diamond and his colleagues are more ambitious, adding countries in Africa, the Middle East, China, and East and Southeast Asia to the range offered by Linz and Stepan.

Despite this complexity, the authors make a number of important contributions to the study of democratization. First, through their comparative scope, these works demonstrate that there is no singular path to democratic consolidation. Building a democracy is a complex process, and elections, although important, are not sufficient to guarantee democracy's survival. Second, these books take the reader beyond the limited naturenurture debate over whether democracies are "crafted" by skilled leadership or the result of "structural" preconditions. As Samuel Huntington asserts, "clearly .. . both preconditions and crafting have roles to play, and certain preconditions can facilitate democratic crafting" (Themes and Perspectives, p. 4). Third, the authors respect the international dimensions of democratization. Foreign powers, international institutions, global markets, and transnational ideas are part of the "domestic" story of democratization.

Finally, these works bring a sober and somewhat pessimistic view of the progress of the third wave that corrects pedestrian visions of democratic triumphalism emanating from international policy circles. For most of the authors, the once globally resurgent expansion of democracy has moved into a phase of consolidation or, worse, perpetual unconsolidation. New democracies are rare, and most of the third wave democracies have stagnated in an intermediate category that mixes procedural democracy with "illiberal" aspects (for...