Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Recent attempted transitions to democracy in the Arab world, Asia, Africa, and elsewhere have met severe headwinds. Can today’s leaders draw on lessons from successful experiences of democratization in previous decades to overcome transitional traps and other failures of democracy? Drawing on a new book edited by Sergio Bitar and Abraham Lowenthal, Democratic Transitions: Conversations with World Leaders (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), this symposium probed the findings of a set of in-depth interviews with leaders of successful democratic transitions. Special focus was given to two current cases of pressing importance: Myanmar and Venezuela.

The event was co-sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Inter-American Dialogue, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. A reception, including sales of the featured book, followed the event.