Munck, Gerardo. "Democratic Transitions in Comparative Perspective." Comparative Politics 26:3 (Apr. 1994): 355-375.

“The surge of democratic governments, starting in 1974 and continuing through the early 1990s is probably the political sign of our time. The political changes entailed, if broadly conceivable in terms of classic democratic theory, have also certain distinct connotations. Current cases of democratization are different from the classic cases of transitions to modern mass democracies in western Europe in a variety of ways. In the first place, the anciens regimes from which transitions have recently departed – bureaucratic authoritarian, state socialist, posttotalitarian authoritarian – are very different form the oligarchic regimes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The actors involved are therefor quite different. Furthermore, the practical unfeasibility, in the current context, of gradually extending the right to vote to broader sectors of the population forecloses the path of incremental democratization through elite contestation, an essential characteristic of western European transitions. The distinctiveness of the current transitions to democracy, which Huntington refers to collectively as the “third wave” of democratization, has thus stimulated much rethinking of democratic theory and has generation probably more literature than any other area of substantive interest in comparative politics.”

– Excerpt

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