In 1974, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the country's almost half-century dictatorship, inaugurated the “third wave” of global democratization.

The “first wave” began with the American and French revolutions, and 29 countries became democracies in the period up to 1922. That number shrank to 12 with the rise of Communism, Fascism and Nazism.

The “second wave” arrived at the end of World War II, when decolonization brought democracy to countries like India and Sri Lanka, and ebbed with events like the military coups in Bolivia and Brazil in 1964, and Argentina in 1966.

In the thirty years following the Carnation Revolution, democracy expanded around the world like never before. But around 2006 it came to a halt. Though the total number of democracies has not sharply declined, space for civil society is shrinking. Freedom and democracy are in recession. This timeline charts the spread, regression, and sometimes even collapse, of democracy in the last 40 years.

  1. Photo
    Mário Soares, center, reads the oath of office as Portugal's first civilian president in decades, in Lisbon in 1986. Credit Associated Press photo
    April 25, 1974
    The Carnation Revolution and the Birth of the 'Third Wave'

    In April 1974, young left-wing officers of the Movimento das Forças Armadas (M.F.A.) overthrew Portugal’s 48-year-old nationalist dictatorship in a swift military coup, launching the first democratic transition in what would become the “third wave” of global democratization.

    A tense, uncertain period of political maneuvering, worker strikes, attempted coups and countercoups followed in the next two years, until parliamentary elections took place in April 1976, and Mário Soares, a dissident who had been jailed 12 times under the dictatorship (and who was known to Portuguese as ''sempre em pe,'' the name for a toy that bounces back whenever it is knocked over) and his Socialist Party formed a coalition government.
  2. Nov. 17, 1974
    Greece Returns to Democracy

    In July 1974, Greece's junta collapsed after seven years in power after it supported Greek Cypriots in a coup that led to Turkey's invasion of Cyprus.

    “Thousands of people gathered in Constitution Square and shouted ‘Tonight, fascism dies!’ and ‘No more blood!’” The Times reported on July 24.

    Konstantinos Karamanlis and his conservative New Democracy party “swept to an overwhelming victory” in parliamentary elections in November.

  3. June 1977
    Spain's Democratic Transition

    In Spain, following the death of the long-time dictator Francisco Franco in 1975, elections in 1977 completed a democratic transition.

  4. Photo
    Polish Solidarity leader Lech Walesa begins his presidential election campaign on Oct. 1, 1990. Credit Wojtek Druszcz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
    Aug. 4, 1980
    'Solidarity' Brings Reform to Poland

    Lech Walesa, an electrician “with a vocational school education and a sure touch for mass politics,” led the founding of the Communist bloc’s first independent trade union, Solidarity (Solidarność), at the Gdansk shipyards in Poland. Solidarity, which eventually claimed more than nine million members, became the spearhead and symbol of a broad campaign of nonviolent resistance to the Polish Communist regime, which declared martial law in 1981 in an effort to eliminate the union.

    But years of political repression failed to suppress widespread civil resistance, and in the face of mounting social unrest the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski entered into roundtable negotiations with Solidarity on Feb. 6, 1989.

    “Poland's Communist leadership at last seems prepared to acknowledge that there can be no reform without the participation of working people on terms of their own choosing,” read an editorial in The Times on Jan. 21, 1989.

    The talks yielded an agreement for open parliamentary elections in June 1989 (the freest in the country since 1947). Solidarity led the formation of a coalition government and, in December 1990, Mr. Walesa was elected president.

  5. Oct. 30, 1983
    The End of Military Rule in Argentina

    “Consider the sad paradox of modern Argentina,” read an editorial in The Times in 1980. “Abundant resources, including food and energy, and high levels of development and education have encouraged the dream of a prosperous society playing an influential role in regional affairs. Yet a primitive politics keeps puncturing the dream.”

    Argentina’s military dictatorship collapsed in 1983 after its defeat in a short war with Britain over the Falklands the previous year. Raúl Alfonsín, leader of the Radical Civic Union, won the 1983 presidential election and went on to form the first democratic government in Argentina since 1976, bringing an end to seven years of repression, in which more than 10,000 people (and possibly as many as 30,000) were “disappeared” by the military, and many more went into exile.

  6. Jan. 15, 1985
    The 'Opening' of Brazil

    The long-time democratic political leader Tancredo Neves won an indirect election to become the first president of a restored democracy in Brazil, concluding two decades of military rule and an extended process of political opening, known as the abertura.

  7. Photo
    A crowd in Manila cheering after a radio broadcast announced that President Ferdinand E. Marcos had fled the country. Credit Sadayuki Mikami/Associated Press
    Feb. 22-25, 1986
    'People Power' in the Philippines

    A tumultuous period of protest and conflict in the Philippines was unleashed by the August 1983 assassination of the charismatic democrat, Benigno Aquino, on the tarmac of Manila airport as he was returning from three years of exile in the United States. In February 1986, after four days of massive, nonviolent civil resistance to defend the presidential election victory of Mr. Aquino’s wife, Corazon Aquino, President Ferdinand E. Marcos flew into exile after more than 20 years in power. Ms. Aquino assumed the presidency.

  8. June 10-29, 1987
    South Korea's Democratic Uprising

    Nineteen days of mass popular protests, led by university students and a burgeoning civil society, forced the military regime to accept direct presidential elections to determine the successor to its strongman, Chun Doo Hwan.

    South Korea went on to become one of the most successful third-wave democracies.

  9. Oct. 5, 1988
    Chile Says 'No' to Eight More Years of Pinochet

    In 1988, after 15 years of repressive military rule, Gen. Augusto Pinochet gambled his grip on power for the opportunity to govern as a democratic leader, and held a plebiscite on the question of whether he should be granted a new eight-year term as president.

    A broad-based opposition united to campaign against him and won 55 percent of the vote. Democratic elections the following year ushered in a coalition government and Chile went on to become one of the most liberal democracies in Latin America.

  10. Photo
    Near Chang'an Boulevard in Beijing, early on June 4, 1989. Credit Jeff Widener/Associated Press
    June 4, 1989
    Pro-Democracy Movement Derailed in Tiananmen Square, Beijing

    On this day, tens of thousands of People’s Liberation Army troops and hundreds of armored military vehicles crushed student pro-democracy protests. The death toll from the crackdown remains unknown, but it is believed that hundreds, probably thousands, were killed that day, and thousands more were detained, tortured or executed in the subsequent days and weeks. Since then, the cause of political reform has remained derailed in China and public discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen protests and crackdown is forbidden by law.

  11. Photo
    Credit John Gaps III/Associated Press
    September 1989
    The Fall of the Berlin Wall

    After Hungary began removing its border defenses with Austria in May 1989, thousands of East Germans escaped through the country to Austria. By November, the exodus of East Germans had become a floodtide and, on Nov. 9, Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall.

    The following year East Germany held democratic elections for a transitional government that negotiated German reunification.

    Communist rule collapsed throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and most countries, led by Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia (which then split into two nations) transitioned to democracy.

  12. Photo
    Nelson Mandela with his wife, Winnie, after his release from Victor Prison, Cape Town. Credit Associated Press Photo
    Feb. 11, 1990
    South Africa's First Multiracial, Democratic Elections

    In 1990, one week after President F. W. de Klerk had lifted the ban on Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and other opposition parties, Mr. Mandela was released after more than 27 years of imprisonment.

    In April 1994 the A.N.C. won a massive victory in the country’s first multiracial, democratic elections, and Nelson Mandela became president at the helm of a five-year, transitional power-sharing government.
  13. Photo
    Boris N. Yeltsin in March, 1991. Credit Liu Heung Shing/Associated Press
    Dec. 25, 1991
    The Dissolution of the Soviet Union

    On Dec. 25, 1991, after six-and-a-half years as general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, and a historic period of liberalizing reforms, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and presided over its peaceful dissolution. Boris N. Yeltsin, who had been elected president of Soviet Russia in May 1990, became the first freely elected ruler of the Russian Federation.

  14. March 23, 1996
    An Election in Taiwan

    The Republic of China, Taiwan, completed a decade-long process of gradual democratic opening with its first-ever direct presidential election. President Lee Teng-hui of the ruling Kuomintang party was elected despite China conducting missile tests off the coast of Taiwan in what was widely seen as an attempt to intimidate Taiwan's electorate and influence the election.

  15. Oct. 12, 1999
    A Coup, and Military Rule, in Pakistan

    The Pakistani military overthrew the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (the third time the military had overthrown the government in the country’s 52-year history) after Mr. Sharif attempted to replace the chief of staff, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The bloodless coup ushered in another long period of military rule in Pakistan, under General Musharraf.

    Civilian constitutional government was restored in the 2008 elections, but under the continuing heavy constraint of a military establishment beyond civilian control — and not before former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2007, while campaigning for a seat in Parliament.

  16. Photo
    Hugo Chávez greets supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, in May 1998. Credit Jose Caruci/Associated Press
    Dec. 15, 1999
    Hugo Chávez Strengthens His Grip on Venezuela

    Voters gave Hugo Chávez, who had been elected president in 1998 after a failed attempt to seize the office in a coup six years earlier, a new constitution that greatly strengthened the powers of the presidency — lengthening its term and allowing re-election, weakening the national legislature and dismissing the existing Congress and Supreme Court.

    When Chávez was re-elected, in July 2000, the National Assembly gave him authority to rule by decree for a year, and he proceeded to consolidate an authoritarian regime.

  17. Photo
    Vladimir V. Putin in January 2000. Credit Ivan Sekretarev/Associated Press
    March 26, 2000
    Under Putin, Democratic Gains in Russia Are Undone

    After winning a presidential election marred by serious and extensive irregularities, Mr. Yeltsin’s designated successor, Vladimir V. Putin, moved to centralize power in the Kremlin and rout what remained of Russia’s badly fragmented liberal opposition.

    "Mr. Putin has the chance to be both democratic and effective. It would be a great loss for Russia and the world if he followed the K.G.B. rulebook and turned the Kremlin back into a fortress," read an editorial in The Times on March 26, 2000.

    In the years since, Mr.Putin has destroyed every independent source of power and accountability in the federal system, the Parliament, the media, business, and civil society while constructing a kleptocratic and increasingly repressive authoritarian regime.
  18. 2003-2011
    The Iraq War Turns Public Opinion Against 'Democracy Promotion'

    The U.S. and its coalition partners invaded Iraq "to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger."

    Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship was swiftly deposed, but the coalition forces failed to find evidence of weapons of mass destruction and the U.S. switched to a strategy of promoting democracy in Iraq. The war and occupation fractured the country and unleashed violent sectarian divisions that continue to destabilize the region.

    The corruption, lawlessness and instability undermining governance in Iraq to this day brought into question the idea of a “freedom agenda” executed with military force.

  19. November 2004
    The Orange Revolution in Ukraine

    In the face of massive fraud in the November 2004 presidential election, Ukrainians poured into the streets of the Maidan in Kiev to launch a campaign of civil resistance against the theft of the vote by the candidate of the post-Soviet establishment, Viktor Yanukovich.

    Opposition candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia Tymoshenko joined in a united effort to rally the country behind demands to respect the election results, and protesters braved bitter cold to participate in sit-ins and strikes. Finally, on Dec. 3, Ukraine’s Supreme Court annulled the election. In a fresh vote, Mr. Yushchenko won with 52 percent, leading to his inauguration as president on Jan. 23, 2005.

    Ukraine’s democratic progress stalled as Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko turned against each other, and Mr. Yanukovich won the 2010 presidential elections. He dragged Ukraine back into authoritarianism and away from Europe, provoking a second popular uprising — the Maidan Revolution of February 2014, and a new chance for democracy to work in Ukraine.

  20. Jan. 14, 2011
    Ben Ali Is Toppled in Tunisia, Optimism Spreads and Quickly Fades

    After 23 years as president, Tunisian strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled the country following a month of grassroots protests. The popular uprising against authoritarian rule spread to Egypt, generating mass protests that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011, after 29 years in power.

    Similar protests erupted in Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The initial optimism that the "Arab Spring" would topple dictatorships and democratize the region has faded as the revolution has folded into sectarianism and repression.

  21. Photo
    Egyptian soldiers guarding access to Tahrir Square, Cairo, on July 8, 2013. Credit Hassan Ammar/Associated Press
    July 3, 2013
    Democracy Is Set Back in Egypt

    Egypt’s political transition imploded when the chief of the army, Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew the elected president, Mohamed Morsi, and suspended the Egyptian Constitution in response to widespread protests against Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government.

    General Sisi proceeded to launch the most severe campaign of political repression in Egypt in decades: killing hundreds and sentencing hundreds more to death. According to Human Rights Watch, more than 41,000 people have faced arrest or criminal charges. Democracy has been set back for the foreseeable future in Egypt, and many members of the Muslim Brotherhood have turned to violence in the belief that peaceful methods have failed.
  22. Photo
    Anti-government protesters blocked many major intersections and polling stations and angered residents who were unable to cast their ballot in the February 2014 election. Credit Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
    May 22, 2014
    Thailand's Military Overthrows the Government, Again

    After six months of street protests and political polarization between pro- and anti-monarchy forces, the Thai military staged what was at least the 12th military coup in the country since 1932; displacing parliament, imposing censorship, and arresting and detaining politicians and anticoup activists.

    "In a cynical sleight of hand," read an editorial in The Times in April 2015, "Thailand’s military junta lifted martial law last week only to replace it with even more draconian powers for the ruling military junta led by Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha."

Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Freeman Spogli Institute at Stanford University, and author, most recently of “In Search of Democracy.”