ABSTRACT
The last two decades have witnessed a widespread trend towards democratization in many parts of the world, with old regimes crumbling under domestic and international pressure. This has brought the role of the international community in brokering peace deals and assisting in state building under the spotlight. Must democracy grow from below or can democracy be 'installed' from the outside? The international community faces enormous challenges when establishing governance and legal frameworks underpinning any successful transition to democracy. While all state building efforts are necessarily determined by the local historical and political context, an underlying commitment to a liberal rights-based approach to democracy, including the promotion of values such as a secular and democratic government, constitutionalism, competitive elections, the rule of law and respect for human rights, has tended to prevail in United Nations state building intervenlions (Samuels andEinsiedel'2003:3).
