A key concern in comparative politics is the origin of democratic institutions. Why are some countries democratic and others not? What mechanisms or factors determine how one country became a democracy when others have not made a similar transition?  This is called “democratization” or “democratic transition.”  This course examines the relationship between economic development and political power in key theories about democratization. Our goal is to better understand the origins of and challenges to democratic practice, recent transitions to democracy in new Eastern European or Latin American democracies, and the possibility of promoting democracy in China and elsewhere in the 21^st Century.  

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