The democratic transformation of the post-communist group of nations in Eastern Europe and Eurasia has lost a lot of steam in recent years. Since the color revolutions and other successful transitions to representative governments and open societies, many other nations have experienced rising trends of authoritarianism. What’s behind this? An interesting essay from the think tank Foreign Policy Research Institute points to a newly aggressive Russia, Europe’s expansion fatigue, American ineptitude in its civil society programs, and a general, widespread disillusionment with democracy as a governing principle. Of all the emerging democracies, hybrid regimes, and outright autocracies, author Adrian Basora notes that “The most serious—and hardest to reverse—setbacks have been in Russia and in its eight “sister autocracies” already discussed. Their total population is 220 million, and their landmass and resources are far larger than those of the non-autocracies. By these measures, therefore, the democratization glass is still more than half empty.”