Based on a detailed study of 35 cases in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and post-communist Eurasia, this book explores the fate of competitive authoritarian regimes between 1990 and 2008. It finds that where social, economic, and technocratic ties to the West were extensive, as in Eastern Europe and the Americas, the external cost of abuse led incumbents to cede power rather than crack down, which led to democratization. Where ties to the West were limited, external democratizing pressure was weaker and countries rarely democratized. In these cases, regime outcomes hinged on the character of state and ruling party organizations. Where incumbents possessed developed and cohesive coercive party structures, they could thwart opposition challenges, and competitive authoritarian regimes survived; where incumbents lacked such organizational tools, regimes were unstable but rarely democratized.

steven levitsky is Professor of Government at Harvard University. His research

interests include political parties, political regimes, and informal institutions, with

a focus on Latin America. Professor Levitsky is author of Transforming Labor-Based

Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective (2003); is coeditor

of Argentine Democracy: The Politics of Institutional Weakness (2005) and Informal

Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America (2006); and is currently coediting

a volume on the rise of the Left in Latin America in the 2000s. He has published

articles in the Annual Review of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Comparative

Politics, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Latin American Studies, Latin American

Politics and Society, Latin American Research Review, Party Politics, Perspectives on Politics,

Studies in Comparative International Development, and World Politics. He is on the

editorial board of the Journal of Democracy.

lucan a. way is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

His research interests include political regimes and weak states, with a focus on

post-communist Eurasia. Professor Way is currently completing a book, Pluralism

by Default: Sources of Political Competition in the Former Soviet Union, and has published

articles in Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Comparative Politics, East European

Politics and Societies, Journal of Democracy, Journal of Communist Studies and Transition

Politics, Politics & Society, Post-Soviet Affairs, Studies in Comparative and International

Development, and World Politics, as well as numerous book chapters. He is on the

editorial board of the Journal of Democracy.