Democracy and its alternatives are the central focus of this chapter. The fragility of democracies and the recent surge in the number of democracies around the world draw attention. The chapter then looks at the relationship between democracy and prosperity, individual freedom, and capitalism. This chapter also explores the alternatives to democracies—military governments and one-party government—and notes that stable non-democracies do exist. A variety of non-democratic regimes are introduced. The chapter then goes into the reasons why military governments are generally fragile and not long-lived. One party governments are also discussed as an alternative. The chapter ends with an in-depth look at Spain, Nigeria and Peru.