對於「民主」和「民主化」的解釋是政治學研究中非常重要的一個領域。大體而言，在 20 世紀 90 年代之前，關於民主化的研究基本集中於國內因素；90年代之後，學者們開始強調國際因素在民主化轉 型過程中的作用。本文經由十五個前蘇聯國家國內政治與國際政治的連結，累積個案研究，來強化「國 際-國內因素」在民主化轉型過程中的重要作用。本文研究發現：採取參與歐盟整合的對外政策的前蘇聯 地區國家，民主呈現穩定的發展，同時這些國家內部都是採行「內閣制」或「總理-總統制」的政府體制； 相對的，採取參與俄羅斯區域整合的對外政策的前蘇聯地區國家，民主則呈現不穩定的發展，這些國家 內部都是採行「總統制」或「總統-議會制」的政府體制。

The explanation of “democracy” and “democratization” is a significant field in the study of political science. Generally speaking, before the 1990s, the study of democratization was largely focused on the domestic factors, while, after the 1990s, scholars began to emphasize the functions of international factors in the democratic transition process. Using the connection of the domestic and international politics in fifteen countries of the former Soviet Union states, this study intends to adopt case-studies to stress the functions of “international-domestic factors” during the democratic transition process. It’s discovered in this study : countries that have adopted the integration with the European Union as their foreign policies have presented stable development in the pattern of “cabinet system" or "premier-presidential system.” On the contrary, the former Soviet Union states that have adopted the integration with Russian have presented unstable development in the pattern of “presidential system” or “presidential- parliamentary system.”