"Democracy is not just a matter of constitutions, parliaments, elections, parties, and the rule of law. In order to see if or how democracy works, we must attend to what people make of it, and what they think they are doing as they engage with politics, or as politics engages them. This book examines the way democracy and democratization are thought about and lived by people in China, Russia, and eleven other countries in the post-communist world. It shows how democratic politics (and sometimes authoritarian politics) works in these countries, and generates insights into the prospects for different kinds of political development. The authors explore the implications for what is probable and possible in terms of trajectories of political reform, and examine four roads to democratization: liberal, republican, participatory, and statist. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, political theory, and post-communist studies."--BOOK JACKET.