ABSTRACT
The contrasting circumstances and different paths to democracy across Southern Europe and Latin America cast increasing doubt on those approaches that stressed particular class configurations, education levels, and other structural variables. Spanning the divide between the two schools, however, is the assertion that domestic factors, whether elite bargaining and negotiation or economic development, are paramount in determining whether a nation makes the transition to democracy and is successful in entrenching the new post authoritarian constitutional arrangements. In speaking about the process of democratization, an initial distinction must be made between transition and consolidation. The first refers to the changeover from an authoritarian to an elected representative government no longer beholden to the previous authoritarian rulers. Consolidation is a separate issue in that, even though a transition to democracy has been made, it may be reversed. The national security benefits derived from stable democracies across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union rest on the assumptions of the 'democratic peace' thesis.
