ABSTRACT
In the early twenty-first century, every country in Central and South America has an elected civilian government, and coups, even the threat of coups, have become far less common than in that region's past. With fears of terrorism in the name of Islam after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the growing challenge of maintaining energy resources demanded by the economies of the wealthy democracies, by the early twenty-first century those wealthy democracies' support for democracy elsewhere were competing with other objectives. In regard to Muslim countries, they were sometimes favoring good relations with tyrants and not rocking the boat rather than supporting potential democratic challengers or pressing established governments for democratic reforms. The new forms of transnationalization already pose several important challenges for claims of democratic government and will do so even more sharply as the presence of the world beyond national borders increasingly impinges on the lives of those within them.
