Balancing historical and contemporary cases, this comparative text examines the crucial question of what promotes or prevents the successful founding of democratic systems. Created for upper-level students, this book can be used as a primary text to be supplemented by theoretical readings or as a source of additional case studies.

Introduction; (Mary Ellen Fischer.); England: An Unfinished Revolution; (Patricia-Ann Lee.); The United States: Creating the Republic; (Tadahisa Kuroda and Erwin L. Levine.); Germany: Into the Stream of Democracy; (Roy H. Ginsberg.); Japan: Foreign Occupation and Democratic Transition; (Steven A. Hoffmann.); Argentina: The Melancholy of Liberal Democracy; (Aldo C. Vacs.); Romania: The Anguish of Postcommunist Politics; (M. E. Fischer.); Poland: A Troubled Transition; (Sarah Meiklejohn Terry.); Russia: Problems and; Prospects for Democratization; (Carol R. Saivetz.); Conclusion; (M. E. Fischer.).