Recent developments in the study of democratization in Europe have emphasized the importance of individual instances of institutional change to the trajectory of a country as a whole. These could include the adoption, expansion or strengthening of democratizing or liberalizing institutions such as the suffrage or electoral representativeness, but they could also entail autocratizing or repressive reforms; historically, institutions were often adopted separately and with diverse causes. The papers on this panel grapple with this piecemeal approach to democratization in both theoretical and empirical terms, and link the investigation of these instances of reform with the wider question of their impact on democratization as a whole. Together, they make the argument that democratization ought to be conceptualized more broadly than previously considered, as key critical junctures occurred outside the bounds of a narrowly defined transition period and include not only democratic successes, but also failures and even retrenchment. Amel Ahmed’s paper presents a novel theoretical approach which frames democratization as an ongoing process of contestation over political inclusion which encompasses multiple time periods and arenas. Accordingly, the other papers consider the diverse causes of reform in countries at very different stages in this ongoing process, spanning socialist Eastern Europe, Victorian Britain, turn-of-the-century Belgium and even prewar France, in which Isabela Mares investigates ‘democratization after democratization’, the protection of electoral autonomy once suffrage was granted. Together, this panel suggests a way to re-frame European democratization more inclusively than it has been in the past.