ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the term "transition" conveys too much optimism as a label for a process of regime change. In the case of democratic transitions, the interference can be part of the actual basis of the whole movement toward democracy. The hegemony of liberal democracy as a legitimate regime type has meant that the trend toward democracy has been stealthily accompanied by an even more rapid countertrend towards hybrid regimes. On the positive side, the process of popular mobilization and organization in the struggle for democracy has reached unprecedented levels. Elections tend to be the focus of democratic openings. Elections appear the wrong place whence to start a process of democratization in a collapsing, conflict-ridden state. The pattern of popular mobilization and organization in the Eastern European transitions has been radically different from that in Latin America. In Eastern Europe, civil society associations were nearly nonexistent before the transitions began.
