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During the past quarter-century the “third wave” of global democratisation has taken place, and transformed the global political landscape in the process. Over 60 countries from around the world have moved from authoritarian rule towards some kind of democratic regime. Whilst establishing these democratic systems represented a complicated process over which a number of difficulties and setbacks had to be overcome, it has since become apparent that sustaining democracy is often as difficult a task as establishing it. This is reflected in the fact that not all of the democracies introduced in the past have survived. Examples of this can be seen in sub-Saharan Africa where, by the end of 1995, just a few years after it was introduced, democracy had already failed in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia. Pressing concerns have since arisen about how to strengthen and stabilise these new democratic regimes and this had led to what we now consider as the concept of “democratic consolidation”. The title of this essay is to establish ‘what factors explain the process of consolidation’. I will seek to do this by first establishing exactly what democratic consolidation is considered to be. I will then discuss what the diffe