ABSTRACT
Many nations in Asia, the Middle East and Africa have not made the transition to democracy as they are still under the rule of authoritarian regimes. This chapter focuses on Iraq, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and China, and attempts to make best use of existing literatures and secondary sources of information in order to come up with some logical prediction for democratic prospects in these countries. It examines the key factors in the mode of transition: the main actors in the transition process, and how ruling elites and opposition forces interacted to influence processes and outcomes, ruling elites from above or opposition forces from below or the combined roles of elites and opposition. The chapter looks into the causes of democratization by examining key indicators derived from theoretical approaches to democratic transitions. Although the underlying causes of the Arab Spring are similar to the Third Wave, some of the causes were political crimes and offenses, financial crises and unemployment.
