At the end of the Cold War, international law scholars engaged in furious debate over whether principles of democratic legitimacy had entered international law. Many argued that a "democratic entitlement" was then emerging. Others were skeptical that international practice in democracy promotion was either consistent or sufficiently widespread and many found the idea of a democratic entitlement dangerous. Those debates, while ongoing, have not been comprehensively revisited in almost twenty years. This research review identifies the leading scholarship of the past two decades on these and other questions. It focuses particular attention on the normative consequences of the recent "democratic recession" in many regions of the world.