The "fourth wave" of democratization and the difficult balance between "transitology" and area studies

The process of regime change that has taken place since 1991 in the post-Soviet space, combined with the phenomena that occurred later in the Balkans and Mediterranean Africa have undermined the certainties of the supporters of transitology. Nevertheless, some scholars have suggested a “fourth wave” of democratization. There has therefore been a revival of the debate between two analytical approaches: an approach to standardizing (transitology) and another approach to individualizing (area studies). The paper explores the strength and weakness of both interpretative schemes.