A New Wave of Democracy

Larry Diamond of Stanford University has released a new paper with the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), “The Spirit of Democracy: How to Make Democracies Work,” in which he predicts that large authoritarian countries are unlikely to turn into full-fledged democracies in the near future, but that any change will be due to deepening reforms in young, fragile democracies.

According to Diamond, the three factors that will determine the feasibility of a new wave of democracy are: gradual economic development to lift levels of education, information, and autonomous citizen power and organization, gradual integration of countries into the global economy and political order, and that democracy must deliver by solving governance problems and meeting citizens’ expectations for freedom, justice, a better life, and a fairer society.