Includes bibliographical references and index.

Waves and troughs of democracy and dictatorship / Valerie Bunce, Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss -- The missing variable : the international system as the link between third and fourth wave models of democratization / Michael McFaul -- A regional tradition : the diffusion of democratic change under communism and postcommunism / Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik -- When Europeanization meets transformation : lessons from the unfinished eastern European revolutions / Alina Mungiu-Pippidi -- Democratization in postcommunist Europe : illiberal regimes and the leverage of the European Union / Milada Anna Vachudova -- A postcommunist transition in two acts : the 1996-7 antigovernment struggle in Bulgaria as a bridge between the 1989-92 and 1996-2007 democratization waves in eastern Europe / Tsveta Petrova -- Defining and domesticating the electoral model : a comparison of Slovakia and Serbia / Valerie Bunce and Sharon Wolchik -- Georgia's rose revolution : from regime weakness to regime collapse / Cory Welt -- Importing revolution : internal and external factors in Ukraine's 2004 democratic breakthrough / Michael McFaul -- Resistance to contagion : sources of authoritarian stability in the former Soviet Union / Lucan Way -- Comparing oranges and apples : the internal and external dimensions of Russia's turn away from democracy / Kathryn Stoner-Weiss -- Contagion deterred : preemptive authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union (the case of Belarus) / Vitali Silitski -- A horse of a different color : revolution and regression in Kyrgyzstan / Scott Radnitz -- The changing character of the global struggle for democracy / Valerie Bunce, Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss.

This volume brings together scholars working on Eastern Europe and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union to examine three waves of democratic change that took place in eleven different former Communist nations. Its essays draw important conclusions about rise, development, and breakdown of both democracy and dictatorship in each country and together provide a rich comparative perspective on the post-Communist world. The first democratic wave to sweep this region encompasses rapid rise of democratic regimes from 1989 to 1992 from ashes of Communism and Communist states. The second wave arose with accession to the European Union (beginning in the late 1990s and culminating in 2004 to 2007) and the third, with the electoral defeat of dictators (1996 to 2005) in Croatia, Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine. Although these three waves took place in different countries and involved different strategies, they shared several commonalities. International factors played a role in all three waves, as did citizens demanding political change. Each wave revealed victorious democrats but also highly resourceful authoritarians.