ABSTRACT
In the mid-to late 1970s, dictatorial systems began collapsing one after
another, first in southern Europe, then in South America in the early and
mid-1980s, and in eastern Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Even-
tually, national movements aimed at instituting democracy also bore fruit in
a number of African countries-not just in South Africa but also in the
continent’s Francophone countries-and in South Korea. Even in the
Middle East, a bastion of ‘‘authoritarian holdouts’’, demands for political
accountability and democratic representation began to dominate the national discourse in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, and elsewhere.
As more and more countries joined the ranks of democracies, Professor
Samuel Huntington’s declaration that a ‘‘third wave’’ of democratization
was under way was indeed becoming prophetic.1
