Democracy challenged Book

During the 1990s, international democracy promotion efforts led to the establishment of numerous regimes that cannot easily be classified as either authoritarian or democratic. They display characteristics of each; in short, they are semi-authoritarian regimes. These regimes pose a considerable challenge to US policymakers because the superficial stability of many semi-authoritarian regimes usually masks severe problems that need to be solved lest they lead to a future crisis. Additionally, these regimes call into question some of the ideas about democratic transitions that underpin the democracy promotion strategies of the United States and other Western countries.