Democracy has become a global norm. After repeated waves of democratization, democracy has now reached all corners of the world and spread far beyond the affluent West. How can we understand transitions to democracy and democratic stability? What is the relationship between democracy and development and what can America and other Western powers do to promote democracy abroad? Although democracy has been on the rise in the last decades we have also seen new challenges emerge. Many countries have adopted democratic facades hiding the persistent stability of authoritarianism. We have also seen the rise of China and Russia in world politics, creating a powerful counterweight to the previously dominant liberal order. How will this change affect the prospects for democratization in the future? These and other questions will be debated in this course as students will be introduced to central question, theories, and findings in comparative democratization.