Abstract: Argues that democratization is best understood as a long-term, dynamic, and open-ended process extending over generations. Standard models of causal explanation, therefore, need to be supplemented by more interpretative approaches. Basic questions of citizen security, the nature of public accountability, and the role of money as a source of political power need reconsideration. The book proposes a range of new perspectives on the complex linkages between democratization and state formation, on the logic of paired comparisons and comparisons between large regions of the world, and on the relationship between democratic ideals and ‘really existing’ democratic outcomes.

Keywords: democracy, democratization, paired comparisons, social construction