In contrast to, for instance, Huntington's, The Third Wave (1991), which focuses on democratic transitions between 1974 and 1990, this book also includes nineteenth century democratizations. Consequently, Huntington uses a minimal, procedural definition of democracy: "the selection of decision makers through fair, honest and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for votes and in which virtually all the adult population is eligible to vote" (1991:7).
Paths Toward Democracy is in many ways a rich departure from the scholarly polemic, on the question whether the process of democratization is an elite-led strategy or a popular triumph from below.
In order to arrive at an alternative view of democratization, the study compares twentyseven countries in Western-Europe and in South America.
Friedman lauds the supposed democratizations of technology, information, and finance, which have apparently brought the benefits of globalization to more people than ever before.
usually contracted by countries and companies that fail to inoculate themselves against changes brought about by the microchip, and the democratizations of technology, finance, and information." He also coins the term the "Golden Straitjacket" for free market economics, which he describes as "the defining political-economic garment" of the globalization epoch.
The process of globalization is leading not only to higher living standards but also to increasing democratization, he argues, citing the examples of Indonesia, Thailand, and South Korea following the Asian financial crisis.
Sergiu Gherghina, Sergiu Miscoiu (eds.), Democratizare si consolidare democratica in Europa Centrala si de Est (Democratization and Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe), Iasi: Institutul European, 2014, 335 p.
An abundant specialized literature has been written on the topics of democracy and democratization; moreover, the refinement of conceptualizations, the plethora of democratic theories, the worldwide dissemination of the vocabularies of democracies and the propagandistic and/or rhetorical formulas for expanding democratic mentalities and practices have overwhelmingly contributed both to the richness of democratic culture today and to the imprecision, baffling complexity and consensual troubles about the meanings and future configurations of democratic political regimes.
At this conjuncture, at the Helsinki Summit of the EU in 1999 Turkey was accepted as an official EU candidate, which required it to implement the Copenhagen criteria of democratization and economic reform.
It draws on a framework of analysis with an integrated assessment of the democratization experiences from Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe.