Vanhanen provides the most extensive comparative survey of the state and conditions of democracy ever made, with historical data and explanatory variables extending back to the 1850s, and with forecasts covering seven regions of the world.

This volume offers a comprehensive overview of current debates about democracy across the globe. Since the political turmoil in Eastern Europe began in the 1980s, the debate about the meaning and future of democracy has intensified. Prospects for Democracy assesses this debate through wide-ranging theoretical considerations and a diverse set of case studies. The volume begins with a major overview of the concept of democracy from ancient city states to contemporary discussion about the possibility of international democracy. In the next section a series of contemporary models of democracy are examined and their strengths and limits explored. The third section confronts a wide variety of questions about the proper form and scope of democratic politics. In the final part, the context and prospects of democracy are investigated across many of the world's major regions including Western and Eastern Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. This volume will be widely welcomed by all those, academics and non-academics alike, who have an interest in the meaning and future of democracy as we approach the 21st century.

A state-of-the-art account of what we know and do not know about the effects of digital technology on democracy.

Taking a multidisciplinary approach that they identify as a "cyber-realist research agenda," the contributors to this volume examine the prospects for electronic democracy in terms of its form and practice--while avoiding the pitfall of treating the benefits of electronic democracy as being self-evident. The debates question what electronic democracy needs to accomplish in order to revitalize democracy and what the current state of electronic democracy can teach us about the challenges and opportunities for implementing democratic technology initiatives.

Social Democracy in the Global Periphery focuses on social-democratic regimes in the developing world that have, to varying degrees, reconciled the needs of achieving growth through globalized markets with extensions of political, social and economic rights. The authors show that opportunities exist to achieve significant social progress, despite a global economic order that favours core industrial countries. Their findings derive from a comparative analysis of four exemplary cases: Kerala (India), Costa Rica, Mauritius and Chile (since 1990). Though unusual, the social and political conditions from which these developing-world social democracies arose are not unique; indeed, pragmatic and proactive social-democratic movements helped create these favourable conditions. The four exemplars have preserved or even improved their social achievements since neoliberalism emerged hegemonic in the 1980s. This demonstrates that certain social-democratic policies and practices - guided by a democratic developmental state - can enhance a national economy's global competitiveness.

What is democracy? What are the pitfalls and the positive potentials in the growing trend toward democratization?This book examines the prospects for democracy in the world today and frames the central dilemma confronting all states touched by the process of democratization. Georg Sørensen clarifies the concept of democracy, shows its application in different contexts, and questions whether democratic advancement will continue—and if so, at what price. The consequences of democracy for economic development, human rights, and peaceful relations among countries are illuminated in both their positive and negative aspects.Following the success of the first edition of Democracy and Democratization, Sørensen has updated the book with a new section on the prospects of democracy as we approach the millennium, an extended discussion of the economic performance of recently democratized countries, and an evaluation of the possibilities for further democratic consolidation. The second edition features a wealth of new case studies, examples, and anecdotes to illustrate historical as well as contemporary instances of democratic transition.Democracy, as Sørensen convincingly portrays it, is a value in itself as well as a potential promoter of peace, prosperity, and human well-being. But democracy is not inevitable, and actions at every level—from the individual to the international—are necessary to ensure that frail or “frozen” democracies do not founder and that established democracies flourish.

It is two decades since the ‘third wave’ of democratization began to roll across sub-Saharan Africa in the early 1990s. This book provides a very timely investigation into the progress and setbacks over that period, the challenges that remain and the prospects for future democratization in Africa. It commences with an overall assessment of the (lack of) progress made from 1990 to 2010, exploring positive developments with reasons for caution. Based on original research, subsequent contributions examine various themes through country case-studies, inclusive of: the routinisation of elections, accompanied by democratic rollback and the rise of hybrid regimes; the tenacity of presidential powers; the dilemmas of power-sharing; ethnic voting and rise of a violent politics of belonging; the role of ‘donors’ and the ambiguities of ‘democracy promotion’. Overall, the book concludes that steps forward remain greater than reversals and that typically, though not universally, sub-Saharan African countries are more democratic today than in the late 1980s. Nonetheless, the book also calls for more meaningful processes of democratization that aim not only at securing civil and political rights, but also socio-economic rights and the physical security of African citizens. This book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization