Against Formidable Odds: The Installation and Persistence of Democracy in Timor-Leste.

Timor-Leste embarked in 2002 on an original process of building simultaneously a state administration that had collapsed with the scorched earth policy of the withdrawing Indonesian occupying forces, and a democratic polity that responded to the aims of the plural nationalist Resistance . Twenty years after gaining internationally recognized independence, Timor-Leste is democratic country in a region of the world where this regime form is not so frequent. while all over the world democracies seem to be in recession. This article starts by offering an historical background to the democratic process in this country. It then focuses on the chances of success of democracy, by applying a SWOT analysis to the situation of the country in the years of the United Nations Transitional Authority that paved the way for independence. Next, it elaborates on the criteria and indices that suggest that democracy is reasonably stable, even if there is still a way in the process of consolidating and qualifying it. Three critical junctures-the period that mediated between the Referendum of August 30, 1999, and the day of independence *lay 20,2002), the "crisis of 2006," which extended its effects well into the next couple of years, and the term in office of the fourth president, Francisco Guterres Lu 010-are then examined. The success of Timor-Leste in building a democracy is then subject to an examination of its roots, contemplating the international dimension, the economic factor, and institutional design. Finally, the article ends with a brief reflection on the challenges that the country faces in the process of rooting its democracy in the social fabric of the nation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]