Democracy has many aspects. It can act as a tool to empower people, as well as a mechanism for assessing the legitimacy of a government. But democracy can also be used by powerful elites as a device of control. In the post-Cold War era, democratization of the Third World has been developed by Western powers as a "policy" that fuses both democratic rhetoric and support for more pluralist policies in the Third World, with the pursuit of Western interests. In this book, 13 authors, from five continents, explore key questions on Third World democratization. Examining local elites and social movements, violence and Western foreign policy, Islamic political movements and economic preconditions - and how all of these contribute or subvert the chances of democracy in the Third World - the contributors conclude that, whilst democracy is of crucial importance for marginalized people in developing regions, it is not an easy commodity for export. Exporting democracy is more a projection of the West's own political model than the support of democracy in the Third World. The contributors are: Claude Ake (Nigeria); Peter Schraeder (USA) ; Joel Rocamora (Philippines); Azmi Bishara (Palestine); Niala Mahara (Trinidad); Joe Stork (USA); Asgedet Ghirmazion (Eritrea); Basher Vashee (Zimbabwe); Franz Nuscheler (Germany); and Xabier Gorostiaga (Central America).