This book compares five newly emerged democracies in Europe, South East Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Cutting across vastly different historical and cultural backgrounds, this book tells the story of how societies come to terms with a painful past and how politics, culture, and the economy intertwine in the process of creating new democratic nations. The volume pioneers a new approach to the study of democratization. It does so by combining comparative and interdisciplinary analysis of South Africa, Poland, (East) Germany, South Korea, and Chile-that is, five countries where a similar general thrust of democratization is set against the most diversified cultural and historical backgrounds.