Contrary to influential theories that explain democratic emergence through deliberate actions by autocrats, this study examines democratizations since 1800. It finds that in over two-thirds of cases, democracy arose not from intentional decisions but from mistakes made by incumbents.
These errors weakened authoritarian control and unintentionally triggered latent factors leading to transition. The research suggests transitions are typically accidental rather than strategic political maneuvers.
| Democracy by Mistake: How the Errors of Autocrats Trigger Transitions to Freer Government was authored by Daniel Treisman. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2020. |
