Consolidating Democratic Governance: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

Abstract

During the past one and half decades, the world has witnessed the dramatic and, at times, rapid transformation of authoritarian polities. Military withdrawal from politics and the transition to democracy has been the most common event in many Third World countries. Indeed, this ‘third’ wave¹ of democratisation in Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America has been ‘one of the most spectacular and important political changes in human history’ (Huntington 1997, p.4) because of its impact not only in establishing or remodelling the formal institutions of the state but also for introducing new forms of political interactions, linkages and transactions in democratic governance.