ABSTRACT
The late 1980s and early 1990s produced a ‘third wave’ of democratization. 1 The collapse of communist regimes in eastern Europe, the return of civilian rule in several Latin American countries, and the ‘people's revolution’ in countries such as the Philippines and Thailand produced a certain sense of euphoria. These events prompted suggestions that we may be at the ‘end of history’, with democracy having decisively triumphed over its rival ideologies. 2 They also engendered optimism about a new age of ‘democratic peace’ on the grounds that democratic countries almost never enter into war against one another.
