ABSTRACT
In the latter part of the 20th century, over 30 countries chose to change their political structure from a form of authoritarianism to democracy. Samuel Huntington (1991) calls this period the third wave of global democratization. A wave of democratization is a “group of transitions from non-democratic to democratic regimes that occur within a specified period of time,” and “usually involves liberalization or partial democratization in political systems that do not become fully democratic” (Huntington, 1991, p. 15). Specifically, a wave of democratization has occurred if political transitions to democracy outnumber transitions to other political systems. Though Samuel Huntington’s work and theory of civilization have generated a lot of controversy and debate, his book, The Third Wave, provides a historical perspective on the process of democratization and is largely cited across the literature on political transitions (Gannon, 2001). Therefore, his work on democratization is used to explain waves of democratization here. Three global waves of democratization have occurred since the 1820s.
