„The third wave” of democratization had a real challenge: to disarm brutal dictatorships and enable the process of building the institutions of the liberal democracy. Political scientists scrutinized the process of democratization and created its transitional paradigm. Unfortunately, as the paradigm and the democratization process failed (the so called „fake democracies” emerged), the proponents of the liberal democracy faced a new challenge: to turn back the trends of democratic erosions and to build a more sustainable, post-liberal democracy in the future. The important question remains: what kind of a new paradigm would best encompass contemporary challenges? This essay aims at drawing such a new paradigm referring to likely transitional strategies that may end up in new kind of democratic settings (also in a form of „fake democracies”). To come up with new schemes failed transitions and new trends are discussed.