This research will compare why two such comparable countries like Slovenia and Croatia have taken different paths towards consolidating democracy. The two countries on the same day in 1991 declared independence from Yugoslavia but only Slovenia managed to successfully consolidate democracy during the 1990s. The purpose of this study is to analyze what differences and similarities Croatia and Slovenia have had which has made them take different paths towards consolidating democracy. The theoretical framework will apply Linz and Stepans theory on consolidating democracy from the countries independence in 1991 until Croatia in 2013, like Slovenia in 2004, became member of the European Union. The results demonstrate that Croatia during the 1990’s were governed by a party and president in a non-democratic way while Slovenia since its independence has implemented all the necessary tools for a successful consolidation of democracy. In 1999 Croatia’s president died and this was the start of a new era in Croatian politics. In 2000 the ruling party was defeated by a coalition which immediately begun to integrate Croatia with the European Union and in essence started to consolidate democracy.

The aim of this study is to analyse the state of Indonesia’s democracy 23 years after the fall of Suharto. By applying a qualitative case study, that uses Linz and Stepans maximal definition of democratic consolidation as the theoretical framework, an analytical scheme is operationalized and developed to answer the research questions. The empirical material is then analysed based on that analytical scheme.   The study shows that Indonesia’s democracy is experiencing challenges in all arenas, except for perhaps the political society, as Indonesia holds regular elections that are considered free and fair. The results, thus, indicate that the democracy in Indonesia cannot be considered consolidated.    These results contribute to contemporary research by strengthening the theory that democracy encompasses more than just elections, as well as the use of a theoretical framework to identify weaknesses in a democracy. This is in turn of both interdisciplinary and practical value, for instance within international development cooperation.   Keywords: Democracy, democratic consolidation, Linz and Stepan, Indonesia

When the Soviet union collapsed at the beginning of the 1990s, a democratization began to develop. During the Jeltsin years, democracy in Russia was developing steadily, but since Putin became president at the turn of the century it has started to move back towards authoritarian rule. The purpose of this study is to explore the reasons for why the democracy in Russia never became consolidated and to understand why the country again has moved towards an authoritarian rule, like the one during the Soviet union. In order to fulfill the aim of this study, two theories were used. These were Linz and Stepan's consolidation theory, about the five arenas that have to be developed, and Samuel P. Huntington's theory about authoritarian nostalgia. In order to answer the questions that this study puts forward, these theories were used against empirical material about Russia. The results of the study show that Russia does not live up to the requirements in any of the five arenas and therefore could not possibly develop a consolidated democracy. It also seems as if the return to authoritarianism in Russia can be blamed on a combination of nostalgia for the Soviet union, which developed during the economic crisis of the 1990s, and an increasing nationalism amongst the population.

The aim of this paper is to examine the Republic of Poland and to what extent the country meets Linz and Stepan´s five arenas of a consolidated democracy which are as follows; Civil society, Political society, Rule of law, State apparatus and Economic society. The application of these five arenas on Poland are due to the political changes that have occurred since the year 2015 when PiS and Andrzej Duda formed a government. By applying the following arenas through a case study, it´s possible to see how these are manifesting in the Republic of Poland. The results of the paper show that all arenas indicate deficiencies with the arena of rule of law being the most vulnerable.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the level of democracy in Tunisia. I will research the challenges to consolidation that the country is facing. I will study between the period of 2001 and 2019. This is to examine how democracy has developed over the years. especially after the Arab Spring. This essay is based on Linz and Stepan's five consolidation arenas. This essay will examine civil society, political society, rule of law, state bureaucracy and an economic society in Tunisia. Zine el. Abadine Ben Ali had been in power since 1987. He was forced to move into exile after about 24 years in power. The governing party RCD controlled the political system in the country since independence in 1956. On 17 December 2010, theso-called Arab Spring began, which meant that Tunisians, for the first time in several decades, experienced a democratic leader based on free and fair elections. Based on the analysis of the thesis, it can be argued that Tunisia is on the way to a fully consolidated democracy, but that there are a number of important aspects in a number of arenas that must be met first before Tunisia can be described as a fully democratic country.

Georgia is one of the few post-Soviet states that has shown ambitions to become a democratic country and a closer ally to the west. Since their peaceful revolution, the country has had issues with consolidating democracy. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the faltering consolidation factors behind Georgia's democratization. The research questions in this study were the following: Why hasn't Georgia succeeded to consolidate its democracy 2013 and 2018 based on Linz & Stepan's five consolidated arenas? The second research question was, have there been significant changes between the five arenas the years 2013 and 2018? In order to do so, this study has used Linz & Stepan's five consolidating arenas as theory. Their theory says that a country must fulfil each of these arenas to become a consolidated democracy. The arenas are the political society, civil society, rule of law, constitutional state, and economic society. This study is based on a theory-consuming qualitative case study. The results of this study showed that there were numerous factors behind Georgia`s faltering consolidation process. Such as polarised media, weak civic society, polarised political society, corruption, nepotism, and lack of meritocracy. Also, there has not been any significant differences between the years 2013 and 2018 that were studied except for the economic society.

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 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.