  Results of some recent investigations of democratic three-body decays of
nuclear systems are discussed. In particular, we consider experimental studies
of three-body ($\alpha+N+N$)-decay of $A=6$ nuclei and $J$-matrix calculations
of monopole excitations in $^{12}$C and $E1$ transitions in $^{11}$Li in the
three-body-continuum cluster models $\alpha + \alpha + \alpha$ and $^{9}$Li + n
+ n, respectively.
