Historically and in general, there are four waves of democratic transition: The first wave can be traced back to 1285 when the lords forced King John to sign the Magna Carta Bill of Rights; the second wave started in the aftermath of the First World War and continued during the Cold War until the early nineteen seventies; the third wave began in the early eighties with the revolution of Poland and continued through the collapse of the Soviet regime and its satellites, the fourth wave began in the wake of the global financial crisis in 2007 and included Latin America, Asia, and Africa. There are three ways of political change that lead to a democratic transition: First, a staged historical development that leads to the creation of constitutional kingdoms or gradualism that comes from within the totalitarian regime after achieving a development boom when it becomes necessary to protect the development boom with legal reforms. Secondly, the military takeover or coup d’état; thirdly the popular revolution, which neutralizes or gains to its side a part of the old regime in favor of establishing a sustainable democracy. The decisive factors in the transition process are the economic performance of the new regime, the political leadership, the maturity and strength of civil society, and the spillover effect. Where can the Sudanese experience be positioned historically in terms of ways of change and chances of success according to this theoretical framework? Dr. Bakry Elmedni is an associate professor of public policy and administration at the School of Business, Public Administration and Information Sciences, Long Island University, Brooklyn New York. He holds a B.Sc. in business administration from University of Khartoum (Sudan), Masters of Public Policy and Administration from the American University in Cairo and a Ph.D. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware.