Microscope or Telescope? The Study of Democratisation across World Regions

This review article brings together six recent books on democratisation. They cover Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, East Central Europe and the Balkans, Eurasia, and East and South East Asia. The review asks what we can learn from reading about democratisation in different parts of the world. The aim is twofold: to identify regionally specific processes of democratisation and to explore cross-regional commonalities. When viewed in combination, these regional studies of democratisation reveal the limitations of area studies and the need for comparative area studies. Cheeseman N (2015) Democracy in Africa: Successes, Failures, and the Struggle for Political Reform. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hale H (2015) Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hsin-Huang MH (ed.) (2014) Democracy or Alternative Political Systems in Asia: After the Strongmen. London: Routledge. Mainwaring S and Pérez-Liñán A (2013) Democracies and Dictatorship in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Petrovic M (2013) The Democratic Transition of Post-Communist Europe: In the Shadow of Communist Differences and Uneven Europeanisation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Sadiki L (ed.) (2015) Routledge Handbook of the Arab Spring: Rethinking Democratization. London: Routledge.