This book assesses differing experiences of the transition to democracy in the countries of Southern Europe, Latin America and Eastern Europe. The authors try to determine what the conditions for successful transitions are. They argue against the ‘big bang’ approach, espoused by many advisors to reforming countries, on the grounds that this approach bypasses the newly formed institutions of democracy and, ultimately, may undermine the necessary consensus to support painful economic reforms. The most successful reforms, they argue, have been those agreed upon through a process of democratic negotiation. A new democracy must offer politically important groups incentives to process their demands within the democratic institutional framework; otherwise, their support will be tenuous and the system may collapse under the strains incurred by painful economic reforms.