How International Organizations Support Democratization: Preventing Authoritarian Reversals or Promoting consolidation?*

International organizations can promote democratization, but how exactly can they achieve this goal? We argue that in order to assess the impact of international organizations on democratization, we must be able to distinguish between avoiding the return of authoritarian regimes and promoting the establishment of democracy. While international organizations cannot directly prevent the return of authoritarian regimes to unsustainable democracies, through capacity building they can increase the likelihood that transitional democracy will be established. An empirical analysis of the transition of democratic governments from 1965 to 2001, in fact, confirms the hypothesis that international organizations promote the establishment of democracy without preventing the return of authoritarian regimes to unestablished democracies. We have also noticed that international organizations are the most important factor in the establishment of transitional democracies in the difficult circumstances created by the historical background of military dictatorial regimes.