Although "democracy promotion" has become a popular term for policy makers and scholars, democratization is rarely a smooth or linear transition. While some countries quickly democratize, others lag behind despite a long period of democracy promotion activities. Furthermore, while democracy promotion itself has been widely studied, there is a paucity of literature available assessing the outcome or the impact of democracy promotion.

Democratic Transformation and Obstruction explores case studies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia and examines the conditions in which democracy promotion is more likely to result in democratic transformation. In addition, it introduces the concept of ‘democracy blocker’, a powerful authoritarian regional actor who is capable of blocking democratization in other countries.

It can be purchased online from Routledge at www.routledge.com.