The article raises a problem of topical interest — establishing the fundamental causes which influence the success of democratic transition. The concept of democratic transition is used here as synonymous to its Ukrainian equivalent — establishment of democracy. Establishment of democracy is a complex, multilevel, and lasting process of transition from authoritarianism to consolidated democracy, which has both country-specific and common features. It allows scientists to categorize the features, factors, and patterns of transition dynamics in aggregate and to detect the universal characteristics of a successful transition. With that in mind the goal of the research was established — to systematize the factors that facilitate successful transition to consolidation phase and to determine their representation during transition in Ukraine. To achieve the goal the author analyzed the indexation criteria of development of different approaches and systematized the most significant of them. Apart from that, the role of protest movements in the process of transition to democracy was determined. As a result, the most significant factors of democratization were established to be economical stability, cultivation of postmaterial values (self-expression), institutionalization of civil segment and independence of legal system. It was ascertained that the most problematic zones for Ukraine are weak dynamics of growth in number of people oriented toward self-expression values and the independence of legal system.

The study of the reasons for the deployment and collapse of protests in Belarus was conducted on the basis of fundamental approaches to studying the nature of protest movements: political opportunity structure, resource mobilization and interactive approach. The reasons for the outbreak of the protest wave in Belarus were analyzed in three areas: global, national and eventual (situational). Both global trends and intra-system factors were taken into account, including the impact of evolutionary modernization and development of network technologies on the shaping of the demand for democracy, changes in social and class structure of Belarusian society, the ferment of dissatisfaction with current political regime and situational reactions to protests. The reasons for the defeat of the protests were clarified and the dominance of two of them — the use of disproportionately harsh government response to non-violent forms of protest activity of citizens and the inability of protesters to cause a serious split in the ruling class — was substantiated.