This book is the result of several years of practical involvement as UN Regional Advisor for Central Asia, where issues of democracy promotion were paramount, as well as academic research and teaching at King's College, London. The main purpose of the book is to give a balanced, contextual and realistic picture of prospects of democracy in the non-Western world with special emphasis on Central Asia and Russia, while the experience of other countries (eg: China and India) and regions serve mainly for the purposes of comparison or corroboration. The book is meant for those who are involved in various capacities in democracy promotion (government officials, staff of intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations (NGO), academics and students (mostly on the Master's and Ph.D. levels).