Over the past 35 years, the number of democratic nations around the world has increased relentlessly. It all started in western Europe in the 1970s with the fall of authoritarian regimes in Greece, Spain and Portugal. The movement spread through east Asia and Latin America in the 1980s, with the coming of democracy to South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brazil and Argentina. The fall of apartheid in South Africa in the 1990s was accompanied by the spread of electoral democracy in much of the African continent. The most dramatic breakthrough of all came with the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989.
过去35年，世界各地民主国家的数量不断增加。一切皆始于上世纪70年代的西欧，希腊、西班牙和葡萄牙的专制政权相继倒台。80年代，运动蔓延至东亚和拉丁美洲，韩国、台湾、菲律宾、巴西和阿根廷迎来了民主。90年代，种族隔离制度在南非的终结，伴随着选举民主在非洲大陆大部分地区的传播。最具戏剧性的突破来自1989年柏林墙的倒塌和前苏联帝国的解体。