Rowen, Henry. "The Tide Underneath the 'Third Wave'." Journal of Democracy 6:1 (Jan 1995): 52-64.

“The collapse of the socialist model, the increase in the number of democracies throughout the world, and the growing influence of East Asia have made the relative prospects of various political-economic systems a matter of high current interest.

Several political analysts, Samuel P. Huntington prominent among them, have observed that democracy has advanced in waves since the early nineteenth century, with each wave giving way to partial reversals followed by new gains. By Huntington’s count, the net number of democracies went from zero before 1828 to 59 in 1990. The current wave — the third by his reckoning — began in the mid-1970s and has seen the number of democracies increase by about 30. Most of the increase, moreover, has taken place amid the ranks of non-Western countries. It is the thesis of this article that trends in both income and education bode well for the future of liberal democracy throughout the world, although there will certainly be setbacks in some countries and there may be periods of overall retreat. These setbacks, however, will be more than offset by a slowly rising tide of democracy.”

– Excerpt

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