Deferring democracy : promoting openness in authoritarian regimes / Catharin E. Dalpino.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The right thing for the wrong reason : when rulers reform -- Mothers and mobile phone mobs : renegotiating civil society -- Radicals and radios : the U.S. response -- Supporting liberalization without sinking it : recommendations and conclusions

"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.