This panel draws on the early democratization experiences of European countries to offer insights into contemporary regime change.  Social scientists’ tendency has been to explain recent regime transitions with conclusions drawn from the third wave, yet the participants in this panel show that important insights can be gleaned from the first wave as well.  For example, elite safeguards—institutional mechanisms for the protection of pre-democratic elites—were important to the success of early democratizers but have been viewed only negatively in current theory and experience.  Similarly, evidence from early European democratizers challenges current wisdom that old regime parties only block democracy and instead shows under what conditions they can improve the democratization process.  Historical research also suggests that contemporary claims about the novelty of hybrid regimes may be inaccurate.  And, examining the past highlights how identity is an important variable that current regime change theories have overlooked.  Finally, studying European countries where subnational variation in democracy has been overcome can help us understand how democracy might develop evenly throughout countries now undergoing regime change.  In leveraging evidence from the first wave, each paper draws lessons for contemporary regime transitions and also further develops theories of regime change.