In recent decades, unmistakable advances have been made in the area of political democracy. During the second half of the 1970s, decisive changes in a democratic direction took place in Spain and in other Mediterranean countries. Authoritarian rule has not, since then, been represented on the political map of Western Europe. Similar developments, though less farreaching, have occurred in Latin America. The dictatorial regimes (usually of a military type), which had dominated the continent for so long, were to a large extent swept away during the 1980s. In Eastern Europe, the existing wall of authoritarianism crumbled even faster. Within the course of little more than a year, starting in 1989, Communist one-party regimes have fallen from the Baltic in the north to the Adriatic in the south. And immediately following this, fundamental political changes took place in the Soviet Union, homeland of the Communist system.

Through the inspiration of these events – but also due to internal problems – a wave of political change was released in Africa, primarily in the sub-Saharan region. One-party and military regimes had long been the dominant pattern there. Yet today, after more than five years of political complications, not a single one-party state remains in this region. Many military governments have also had to leave the scene, but not all, as the striking example of Nigeria shows. Some new military regimes have, furthermore, appeared recently. And several countries are torn by civil war and political anarchy.