ABSTRACT
Introduction Democratization is the process whereby countries become democratic, and this takes time, depending on several factors related to society’s readiness for democracy. Countries go through a period of transition before they become consolidated democracies. But what is a consolidated democracy? Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan (1996) give a very simple but eloquent definition: it’s a political situation when democracy becomes the only game in town.1 Przeworski (1991) offers similar explanation but he adds ‘it’s a system in which parties lose elections’, explaining that the presence of a party that wins elections does not define a system as democratic.2 Przeworski regards democracy as consolidated
when a particular system of institutions becomes the only game in town, when no one can imagine acting outside the democratic institutions, when all losers want to do is to try again within the same institutions under which they have lost.3
