ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents an overview of the key concepts covered in in preceding chapters of the book. Starting with the American and French Revolutions in the late eighteenth century, representative government became a lasting reality for the first time in thousands of years. Fueled by the American experience and the ideas put forth in the Revolution, numerous countries around the world started a slow but steady progress towards democracy. The result was profound, a gradual demise of long-held monarchies and brutal dictatorships. In western European countries, where a plethora of philosophical thoughts of what constitutes just and unjust regimes emerged, the transition to democracy gained momentum. Over the next few hundred years and continuing to this day, the transformation of political systems around the world saw the collapse of dictatorial regimes in favor of a system of rule by the people. In this study, we have been concerned with the mechanisms that transform nation-states into democratic polities.
