Thomas Denk is Chair Professor of Political Science at Örebro University, Sweden. His research focuses on democratization, political culture, state-formation, and political methodology. 


Sarah Lehtinen is Research Analyst at the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (BRÅ) and former Researcher in Political Science at Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She has examined how political institutions during state-formations are developed and democratized, investigated the conditions of democratic diffusion, and developed quantitative databases.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: A Comparative Framework of State-Formation

Chapter 3: Paths to Independence

Chapter 4: Paths to Independence and Democratization

Chapter 5: The Legacy of Initial Regimes and Democratization in New States

Chapter 6: Conclusion

This book examines the connection between two major developments in the world: state-formation and democratization. Since 1946, the number of states has increased from 66 to almost 200 independent states, but our knowledge of these state-formation processes is limited. The authors present a new database on state-formation and democratization, which enables novel classifications and analyses of these processes on the global level. They argue that the form of state-formation affects the probability for democratization in new states and that the initial regime that state-formation establishes at the time of independence has long-term effects on new states' democratization.