After finishing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Distinguish the core features that make a regime democratic or authoritarian.
• Define terms like “democratization” and “competitive authoritarianism”.
• Identify major historical trends in the development of democracy.
• Understand what the state of democracy is today in the world.
• Make arguments about why some countries are democratic while others are not.
• Pinpoint the ways in which the global forces of international studies are shaping democracy.