The dramatic global transition to democracy of the last decade reveals important systematic patterns. Using recent contributions to world-systems theory, this study examines the relationship between political regime changes and the position of nations in the world-economy over the last two decades, to argue that democratic transitions have been centered among semiperipheral nations. The study also found a strong relationship between the structure of the labor force and the global distribution of democratic institutions, but a weak relationship between the structure of the labor force and the timing of transitions in the semiperiphery. Overall, the findings suggest that world-systemic categories provide a useful vantage point to distinguish global trends from the specific characteristics of individual nations, thereby allowing for greater analytical precision in identifying the crucial causal relations shaping transitions from dictatorship to democracy.
