This volume gathers essays by leading scholars and principals of regional public-opinion surveys, known as “barometers,” which are making possible the first systematic, worldwide study of how citizens think about democracy and weigh it against other forms of government.

Originally published in the Journal of Democracy, the essays cover topics from Arab opinion about democracy to the nostalgia for authoritarianism found in East Asia. Other contributions shed light on the rise of populism in Latin America, and explain why postcommunist regimes in Europe have won broad public support. Additional chapters invite reflection on the role of ordinary people in democratization through the rise of “expressive” social values, and ask whether political or economic factors more decisively influence how people evaluate democracy in their own countries.

No serious student of democracy can afford to be without this book. It offers an original and comprehensive view of what citizens around the world think as democracy’s global “third wave” prepares to enter its fourth and perhaps most challenging decade.

Contributors: Michael Bratton, Yu-tzung Chang, Yun-han Chu, Russell J. Dalton, Peter R. deSouza, Ronald Inglehart, Amaney Jamal, Willy Jou, Marta Lagos, Suhas Palshikar, Chong-Min Park, Richard Rose, Mitchell A. Seligson, Sandeep Shastri, Doh C. Shin, Mark Tessler, Christian Welzel, Yogendra Yadav

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution of War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. They serve as codirectors of the International Forum for Democratic Studies and coeditors of the Journal of Democracy.