ABSTRACT

Much of the research on democratic transition and consolidation has tended to focus on factors within the country undergoing regime change that are likely to have an impact on whether the country becomes a consolidated democracy – the social structural aspects of the economic system (and its subsequent impact on things like party systems), the agency effects of key actors during and after a transition, and institutional design within the regime itself. Thus far these have served as the core points of comparison and explanation across the three cases studied in this book. This chapter alters the focus somewhat and considers the potential impact of factors outside of the national polity, namely the impact of the international environment and international organizations on democratic consolidation. As will be seen below, the evidence on the effect of international factors on democratic consolidation is extremely mixed, and at best, it is the interrelationship between these international factors and domestic structures and actors that might help to provide a more holistic explanation of differences in outcomes of regime transitions. The chapter begins by providing an overview of the external factors that are likely to affect a democratic transition and then analyses the effect of these in our three case studies.