Vanhanen uses data concerning the state of democracy and drawn from the 1850s to 2003 in order to analyse and evaluate the prospects of democracy in each country. His controversial conclusion - that the same explanatory variable appears to explain democratization satisfactorily in all parts of the world, in spite of significant historical and cultural differences between countries - provides theoretical grounds for political and social strategies intended to improve social prerequisites of democracy in the world. This reference tool should be of interest all researchers of democracy and democratization.