This study aims to demonstrate the reasons why there is a prevailing difference in democratization between the south American countries Chile and Peru. By applying democratization researchers, Juan Linz, and Alfred Stepans framework: The Five Arenas of a Consolidated Democracy, and a causal mechanism. I discover an institutional and civil pattern which when functional, contributes to democratization. In the case of Chile, the results show that a strong rule of law and states apparatus, institutionally makes democracy the only game in town in Chile. However, in the case of Peru, the weak state apparatus and rule of law allows undemocratic forms of action which in part, can explain the difference in democratization. The results that emanate from the civil society, show that both countries suffer from weak connection to the political arena which in turn affects the economical arena. This also gives implications to the remaining democratizing challenges for Chile and Peru. The results however are affected by the strengths and shortcomings of Linz & Stepans framework which is also discussed in this study.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the Democratic People's Republic of Korea regime in the period 1970 - 1994 and to apply the results of the analysis on the Linz typology of non- democratic regimes. The first part focuses on a detailed characterization of three chosen types, namely totalitarian, sultanistic and post-totalitarian, on the searching for parallels and their comparsions. In the other two parts, the thesis focuses on certain aspects of the DPRK development that were chosen as the most appropriate regarding the typology. First, the period that followed after the fall of the Japanese protectorate,1945 to 1969, is analysed. In this period the regime start to establish its own new institutions. The next part examines the already established institutions in the period 1970 - 1994. All the results are then applied on the Linz typology.

This thesis aims to examine Ghana's and Zimbabwe's democratization process and why the outcome is so different in each country, what are the central factors that have played a role in the country's success or defeat? The theoretical framework is based on Juan j. Linz and Alfred Stepan’s work on how a state becomes democratically consolidated and what constitutes as a consolidated democracy. The essay is a theory-consuming comparative case study focusing on Ghana’s and Zimbabwe’s democratization and why one of them succeeded and the other didn’t.  The results shows that Ghana have come a long way towards consolidating their democracy based on the demands of the theories and that because of their peaceful transition their democracy had a bigger chance of succeeding. Zimbabwe lacks a lot of the democratic procedures and have had a hard time transitioning to a democratic system.

This is a qualitative comparative case study, with two cases in focus Poland and Hungary. The purpose of this study is to compare two similar cases of negative democratic trends and to view similarities and differences. The research questions are; what democratic challenges do Poland and Hungary face in relation to the five arenas of the theory, civil society, political society, the rule of law, the state apparatus and the economic arena? What are the similarities and differences between the two countries? The theory used is Linz & Stepans democratization theory that uses five different arenas in order to analyze a state. The findings in the study is that there are many similarities in how the two states started their autocratization processes. The differences being that Hungary has come further in many of the arenas and are therefore more authoritarian. They also differ in the conditions the two different ruling parties had in order to start the autocratization process.

Botswana's democracy has been labeled as ‘the African Miracle’ by the international community. However, in its 50 years of independence, there has been no change in government from the ruling party and the opposition is institutionally weak. The purpose for this study is to analyze the extent of democratic consolidation in Botswana and to try to analyze the challenges in the processes of democratic consolidation. In order to answer the research questions that are put forth in this study, Linz and Stepan’s theoretical framework were used against empirical evidence about Botswana from its independence in 1965 to 2015. The results show that in Botswana the democracy is not consolidated and point toward a more stable democracy than a deeply consolidated democracy. Stable democracy is centered upon the actual functions rather the depth of democracy. The main challenges for further democratic consolidation is the constitutional framework that lack accountability for the executive, the longevity of a dominant party system, the uneven ‘playing field’, the weak opposition, the restrictions and limitation upon the independent media and the civil society. Botswana’s exceptional reputation is exaggerated, while the country have had uninterrupted elections, the depth and quality of the democracy is shallow.

The aim of this thesis is to examine whether Venezuela's democratic decline could be explained by the consolidation theory of Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan. Between the years 2005 – 2017, the organization Freedom House concluded that Venezuela’s political and civil rights declined, resulted in that Freedom House classified Venezuela from “partly free” in 2005 to “not free” in 2017, and several scientists classified Venezuela year 2017 as an autocracy. The method is to apply the consolidation theory and its five arenas (the civil society, the political society, rule of law, state bureaucracy and economic society) in the case Venezuela between the years 2005 – 2017. Each arena contains different qualifications which are all needed for a state to transition from democracy to consolidated democracy. However, in this thesis the aim is to study if the consolidation theory is able to explain a state’s transition from democracy to autocracy. By using material as scientific articles and reports, it is concluded that each arenas’ qualifications have deteriorated between the years 2005 - 2017. Therefore, it is found that the consolidation theory works very well in explaining a state’s transition from democracy to autocracy, which in this case is Venezuela.

The objective of this essay is to examine which democratization factors that have contributed to the success of the democratization process in Costa Rica but not in Venezuela between 2000 and 2010. The theoretical framework is based on Juan Linz and Alfred Stepans five interactive arenas for a consolidated democracy. The methodology of this essay is composed of a comparative case study, which includes a most similar systems-design method. The choice of Costa Rica and Venezuela is based on their similarities in both history, culture, language and geographical location, but which have nevertheless led to such different successes in democratization between the years 2000-2010. The results show that all the five arenas have been contributing factors, while actors have played a major role in the countries various democratic developments. Costa Rica meets the requirements for all the selected democratization factors while Venezuela does not fully meet the requirements for any of them.

This study aims to utilize Juan J. Linz and Alfred Stepan's (1996) theory of democratic consolidation with its five interactive arenas to comprehend how the Belarusian dictatorship consolidated during the 1990s. A crucial aspect to achieve this aim is to ascertain whether the theory can provide clarity on when autocratic consolidation has occurred, or if it rather elucidates the process of autocratization in Belarus. The paper adopts a descriptive qualitative case study methodology with a deductive approach. By flipping the theory's perspective and examining how the regime undermined the arenas to strengthen autocracy, the study reveals the extent to which Belarus fulfills Linz and Stepan's (1996) three criteria of behavioral, attitudinal, and constitutional consolidation to gain insights into the consolidation of the Belarusian dictatorship. The findings reveal that the Lukashenko-led Belarusian regime systematically eroded aspects across all five arenas to consolidate its dictatorship. However, given the unascertainable attitudinal consolidation that transpired in Belarus during the 1990s, the study cannot pinpoint when autocratic consolidation occurred. Instead, it concludes that an autocratization process began under Lukashenko's rule, facilitated by political, social, legal, institutional, and economic maneuvers aimed at consolidating power. Taken together, the results deepen our understanding of what strategies autocratic regimes may employ to strengthen autocracy.

Turkey is one of the most powerful and influential nations in the Middle East with many important alliances, but what is the status of the democracy in the country? This thesis aims to explain the challenges towards a consolidation process in Turkey. A case study is used as a methodology and the research question is analysed with the help of the theoretical framework from Juan Linz and Alfred Stepans with their five consolidation arenas. The analysis examines the civil society, political society, economic society, rule of law and state bureacracy in Turkey. These five arenas indicates to which extent the consolidation difficulties exists. The results shows that many internal factors, with civil liberties in danger, has complicated the democratic consolidation. The country’s history with several military coups and ongoing battles with the kurdish guerilla PKK has also kept back the democracy.

This thesis aims to examine when democratic consolidation took place in Costa Rica from a maximalistic perspective. The hypothesis is that it’s likely that the democracy was not consolidated as early as 1953 which would be the case if applying a minimalistic perspective. Linz and Stepan’s theory about democratic consolidation has been chosen as the theoretical framework of the thesis and the research has been conducted by using a qualitative text analysis. The thesis comes to the conclusion that Costa Rica’s democracy completed its consolidation 1978 when the previously banned communist party Partido Vanguardia Popular was allowed to compete for votes again in the 1978’s presidential and parliamentary elections. From that point no party was excluded from taking part in free and fair elections.