ABSTRACT
[N]o serious observer in the early 1990s could be as sanguine about liberal democracy as about capitalism. The most that could be predicted with some confidence (except, perhaps, for the more divinely inspired fundamentalist regimes) was that practically all states would continue to declare their profound attachment to democracy, organize elections of some kind, with some toleration for a sometimes notional opposition, while putting their own gloss on the meaning of the term.
