Research focus

The focus of this research group is the study of institutional developments and policy developments in regimes that have recently changed from authoritarianism towards a more democratic regime. We seek to understand how politics is shaped in the interaction between political institutions, processes and political actors. The geographic focus varies, but with a concentration on countries that have developed multiparty systems and democratic institutions in recent years in Latin American, East and Central Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. We are also concerned with understanding how concepts and methodologies for the study of democratization as they have been developed in the study of established democracies can be applied to different settings. Thus, comparisons with and studies of such processes in established democracies are also of interest to this group.