Babel in Democratization Studies

Issue Date October 2005
Volume 16
Issue 4
Page Numbers 113-128
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

With democracy becoming the global norm, the field of democratization studies has boomed in the last quarter of a century. While early research focused on transitions, over time scholars have begun to pay closer attention to the performance of emerging democracies. Arguably, the major empirical finding of this latter research has been that, while the majority of these new regimes exhibit democratic features such as free and fair elections, a significant number of them deviate from standards and practices that are inherent in the very idea of democratic rule.