Democracy Thirty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall: From Global Expectations to Internal Threats

This paper examines the fall of the Berlin Wall from the assumption that 1989 set the stage for positive expectations of great transformations that would erase dividing lines that were implanted into the world in the 60s; consequently, a path of greater understanding and reason would be built. However, 30 years after that historic event, uncertainty clearly took over and led post-totalitarian regimes down different paths, straying from that optimistic vision. This reflection focuses on the impact that event had on social sciences, particularly the study of democracy. This is done through a contrasting exercise, observing the expectations generated by democracy among some of the most important scholars of the 20th century a few years after it happened and the recent evaluation of the current condition of the regime in light of the contributions of scholars focused on democratic political phenomena.