ABSTRACT
There is a strong consensus in the literature on democratization that economic development 2 and the presence of democratic neighbours increases the probability of a regime becoming democratic. Under such circumstances, no matter what political leaders, civil society activists or ordinary citizens do, they act within a social and economic context that is more or less favourable for democracy. However, scholarly research also shows that there are important exceptions to this general pattern. These are what I would like to call ‘deviant democracies’: countries that have seemingly beaten the odds and successfully democratized within an unfavourable structural setting.
