ABSTRACT
Contrary to the comforting image of democracy as a secure cave into which people can retreat forever from the buffeting of political storms, most regimes that have taken significant steps toward democracy over the last two centuries have later de-democratized at least temporarily. A surprising number of regimes that actually installed functioning democratic institutions then returned to authoritarianism (Arat 1991; Diamond 1999; O’Donnell 1999; Przeworski, Alvarez, Cheibub, and Limongi 1997, 2000). In 20th-century Europe alone, after all, Greece, Italy, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Vichy France provide visible, violent examples. Over the last half century, Latin America has added Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay to the roster of democratic reversals. Despite the democratic jubilation that greeted the exit of the Soviet Union from state socialism, levels of democracy actually receded after initial rises in Russia, Belarus, and much of central Asia (Freedom House 2002). De-democratization remains a possibility everywhere in the world.
