This course will span over twelve sessions to present an updated account on approaches, institutions, challenges, and the prospects of transition from authoritarian rules to democracy in the Global South. The program discusses the endogenous causes as well as the external sources of democratic changes demonstrated in international development and modernization level of performance. Key modernization perspectives including neoliberal tendencies and global aid impacts will be analyzed and their role in promoting the role of local civil society, elevating human development indexes, and maximizing gender equity in the global south will be examined.

The course will pay attention to the fundamentals, essentials, and the consequential challenges of democratization practices. These challenges have been ensued by the growing forces of traditionalism and the uprising of global terrorism hindering the neoliberal market and democracy expansions. In short, students should have a grasp of the key concepts, theories, discourses, and controversies related to the transition from authoritarianism to democracy at the end of the course.