"The Third Wave - the democratic revolution that marked the end of the cold war - broke the communist monopoly in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and leavened authoritarianism with democratic experiments in several countries of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Fully one-third of the world's people, however, must still contend with repressive governments.

In several of these countries, authoritarian regimes endure because they have launched cautious reforms designed to improve the lives of everyday citizens while fending off any direct challenge to their political supremacy. Because they are determined to hold onto power, these governments are broadly viewed as political intransigents, out of step with post-cold war democratic governments. Some are also the subject of intense policy debates because they play important roles in U.S. security and economic policy.

But examined on their own merits, several of these states are taking incremental steps that in the long term could lead to more open, just, and democratic societies.".

"Catharin Dalpino takes a fresh look at the prospects for political change in these countries. She examines in detail how countries such as China and Iran, ranked among the most repressive by Western standards, are "opening windows to political and social reform." Although Leninism lingers in China, the regime there has commenced market and other economic reforms. In Iran, the nature of the Islamic republic is under review.

In the traditional monarchies of the Middle East, a new generation of leaders is assuming power and demonstrating a more pragmatic approach to government. Dalpino maintains that U.S. policy must focus first on supporting these emerging social and political trends, deemphasizing short-term human rights and democracy strategies and reinforcing more subtle attitudinal and institutional changes in both state and society.

She offers a fifteen-point directive for U.S. policy to help enlarge political space and strengthen civic sectors in these important countries."--BOOK JACKET.