Democratization during the third wave, a period that Samuel Huntington identifies with the collapse of the military regime in Portugal in 1974 and continued with other cases of democratization in Latin America, Southern and Eastern Europe, and Africa, has primarily been a function of compromises, negotiations, and external pressures. Democratization in these countries initiated important changes, yet preserved some authoritarian elements in the political systems. In some cases, the introduction of multiparty elections failed to symbolize the creation of a new political order, thereby stalling the transition halfway between authoritarianism and democracy. Alfred Stepan’s Democracies in Danger draws attention to the post-transition era and highlights the dangers involved in consolidation of emerging democracies, whereas Linberg’s edited volume, Democratization by Elections: A New Mode of Transition, emphasizes the importance of elections as an instrument to bring about democracy. As such, these two volumes complement each other and make an important contribution to the study of democracy and democratization. Stepan’s volume exceeds the subject of transition to democracy and delves into a critical yet often concealed aspect of democracy involving the quality and sustainability of democratic reforms. This volume presents the dangers and threats inherent in new democracies. These dangers, ranging from ethnic and religious divisions to the state’s inability to provide services and security, present a new type of challenge for nascent democracies. Drawing upon experiences from multiethnic and multireligious societies (that is India, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka), Ashutosh Varshney in chapter 1 presents the dangers of ethnocommunal conflict for the quality and sustainability of democracy; concluding ethnocommunal civic engagement and interethnic ties can lay the groundwork for a peaceful coexistence. Along this line, Richard Simeon (chapter 2) highlights the Canadian experience, as an example of a success story, to examine the ‘‘accommodation and management of difference.’’ Varshney and Simeon both draw attention to bridging social capital as well as institutions that provide the groundwork for a peaceful coexistence in multiethnic societies. This conclusion bodes well with the literature on institutionformation in post-conflict societies in order to prevent the kind of conflict that has been inimical to the quality and stability of new democracies (for a review, see Wolf 2010; also see Rothchild and Roeder 2005). Felipe Aguero, in chapter 3, points to the dangers inherent in transitory phases that pin down military and security forces as posing formidable obstacles that inhibit the deepening of new democracies. Furthermore, Narcis Serra, in