Over the past three decades the world has been transformed. In 1974, nearly three-quarters of all countries were dictatorships; today, more than half are democracies. More recently, however, “democratic recession” has affected many crucial parts of the world, including Russia, Venezuela, or Nigeria. Despite these setbacks, the desire for democracy runs deep around the world. There are no global rivals to democracy as a broad model of government. But how and why exactly does democracy progress? Is it really possible to build free and democratic societies throughout the world?
In CIPE’s latest Feature Service article, Larry Diamond, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, answers this crucial question....