Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic
political regime
In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan J ...
, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.
It may be a
hybrid regime
A hybrid regime is a mixed type of political system often created as a result of an incomplete transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one (or vice versa). Hybrid regimes are categorized as combine autocratic features with dem ...
in transition from an
authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
regime to a full
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
, a transition from an authoritarian
political system
In political science, a political system means the type of political organization that can be recognized, observed or otherwise declared by a state.
It defines the process for making official government decisions. It usually comprizes the govern ...
to a
semi-democracy
Anocracy or semi-democracy is a form of government that is loosely defined as part democracy and part dictatorship, or as a "regime that mixes democratic with autocratic features." Another definition classifies anocracy as "a regime that permits ...
or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system.
The outcome may be
consolidated (as it was for example in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
) or democratization may face frequent reversals (as happened in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
). Different patterns of democratization are often used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war or whether its economy grows.
Whether and to what extent democratization occurs has been attributed to various factors, including economic development, historical legacies, civil society, and international processes. Some accounts of democratization emphasize how elites drove democratization, whereas other accounts emphasize grassroots bottom-up processes.
The opposite process is known as
democratic backsliding
Democratic backsliding, also called autocratization, is the decline in the democratic characteristics of a political system, and is the opposite of democratization. Democracy is the most popular form of government, with more than half of the nat ...
or autocratization.
Description
Theories of democratization seek to explain a large macro-level change, the change in a political regime from dictatorship or authoritarianism to democracy. Some disagreements among scholars concern the concept of
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
. Other differences concern how to measure democracy - and what
democracy index
The ''Democracy Index'' is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research division of the Economist Group, a UK-based private company which publishes the weekly newspaper ''The Economist''. Akin to a Human Development I ...
should be used.
Measures of democratization
Some common measures used in this literature are those provided by
Freedom House
Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...
, Polity, and the
V-Dem Institute
The V-Dem Institute (Varieties of Democracy) is an independent research institute founded by Professor Staffan I. Lindberg in 2014 that studies the qualities of government. The institute is funded by a number of government organizations, Worl ...
.
Freedom House produces one of the most comprehensive "freedom measures" nationally and internationally and by extension a measure of democratization. Freedom House categorizes all countries of the world according to a seven-point value system with over 200 questions on the survey and multiple survey representatives in various parts of every nation. The total raw points of every country places the country in one of three categories: Free, Partly Free, or not Free.
Waves of democratization
One way to summarize the outcome theories of democratization seek to account is with the idea of
waves of democratization
![Waves of democracy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Waves_of_democracy.png)
A wave of democratization refers to a major surge of democracy in history. And
Samuel P. Huntington identified three waves of democratization that have taken place in history.
The first one brought democracy to Western Europe and Northern America in the 19th century. It was followed by a rise of dictatorships during the
Interwar period
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...
. The second wave began after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but lost steam between 1962 and the mid-1970s. The latest wave began in 1974 and is still ongoing. Democratization of
Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
and the former
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
is part of this
third wave.
Waves of democratization can be followed by waves of de-democratization. Thus, Huntington, in 1991, offered the following depiction.
• First wave of democratization, 1828-1926
• First wave of de-democratization, 1922-42
• Second wave of democratization, 1943-62
• Second wave of de-democratization, 1958-75
• Third wave of democratization, 1974-
The idea of waves of democratization has also been used and scrutinized by many other authors, including Renske Doorenspleet,
John Markoff
John Gregory Markoff (born October 24, 1949) is a journalist best known for his work covering technology at ''The New York Times'' for 28 years until his retirement in 2016, and a book and series of articles about the 1990s pursuit and capture ...
,
Seva Gunitsky
Seva Gunitsky is an American political scientist. He is an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the ways global forces and international politics affect democracy and domestic politics. He i ...
, and Svend-Erik Skaaning.
According to Seva Gunitsky, from the 18th century to the
Arab Spring
The Arab Spring ( ar, الربيع العربي) was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in T ...
(2011–2012), 13 democratic waves can be identified.
Historical cases
The
history of democracy
A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution or organization or a country, in which all members have an equal share of power. Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities that differentiate ...
shows that democractic development has often been slow, violent, and marked by frequent reversals.
Great Britain
In Great Britain, there was
renewed interest in Magna Carta in the 17th century. The
Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England from the 13th century until 1707 when it was replaced by the Parliament of Great Britain. Parliament evolved from the great council of bishops and peers that advised t ...
enacted the
Petition of Right
The Petition of Right, passed on 7 June 1628, is an English constitutional document setting out specific individual protections against the state, reportedly of equal value to Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689. It was part of a wider c ...
in 1628 which established certain liberties for subjects. The
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
(1642–1651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament, during which the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the
Putney Debates
The Putney Debates, which took place from 28 October to 8 November 1647, were a series of discussions over the political settlement that should follow Parliament's victory over Charles I in the First English Civil War. The main participants were ...
of 1647. Subsequently,
the Protectorate
The Protectorate, officially the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland, refers to the period from 16 December 1653 to 25 May 1659 during which England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and associated territories were joined together in the Com ...
(1653–59) and the
English Restoration
The Restoration of the Stuart monarchy in the kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland took place in 1660 when King Charles II returned from exile in continental Europe. The preceding period of the Protectorate and the civil wars came to be ...
(1660) restored more autocratic rule although Parliament passed the
Habeas Corpus Act in 1679, which strengthened the convention that forbade detention lacking sufficient cause or evidence. The
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
in 1688 established a strong Parliament that passed the
Bill of Rights 1689
The Bill of Rights 1689 is an Act of the Parliament of England, which sets out certain basic civil rights and clarifies who would be next to inherit the Crown, and is seen as a crucial landmark in English constitutional law. It received Royal ...
, which codified certain rights and liberties for individuals. It set out the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of the rest of Europe,
royal absolutism
Absolute monarchy (or Absolutism as a doctrine) is a form of monarchy in which the monarch rules in their own right or power. In an absolute monarchy, the king or queen is by no means limited and has absolute power, though a limited constitut ...
would not prevail. Only with the
Representation of the People Act 1884
In the United Kingdom under the premiership of William Gladstone, the Representation of the People Act 1884 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 3, also known informally as the Third Reform Act) and the Redistribution Act of the following year were laws which ...
did a majority of the males get the vote.
United States of America
The
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
(1775–1783) created the United States. The new
Constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When ...
established a relatively strong federal national government that included an
executive
Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to:
Role or title
* Executive, a senior management role in an organization
** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators
** Executive dire ...
, a
national judiciary, and a bicameral
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
that represented states in the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and the population in the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
.
[Wood, ''The Radicalism of the American Revolution'' (1992)] In many fields, it was a success ideologically in the sense that a relatively true republic was established that never had a single dictator, but
voting rights
Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...
were initially restricted to
white
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...
male property owners (about 6% of the population). Slavery was not abolished in the southern states until the constitutional
Amendments An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...
of the
Reconstruction era
The Reconstruction era was a period in American history following the American Civil War (1861–1865) and lasting until approximately the Compromise of 1877. During Reconstruction, attempts were made to rebuild the country after the bloo ...
following the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
(1861–1865) and the
Civil Rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
given to African-Americans were only achieved in the 1960s.
France
The
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
(1789) briefly allowed a wide franchise. The
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...
and the
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
lasted for more than twenty years. The
French Directory
The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and r ...
was more oligarchic. The
First French Empire
The First French Empire, officially the French Republic, then the French Empire (; Latin: ) after 1809, also known as Napoleonic France, was the empire ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte, who established French hegemony over much of continental Eu ...
and the
Bourbon Restoration Bourbon Restoration may refer to:
France under the House of Bourbon:
* Bourbon Restoration in France (1814, after the French revolution and Napoleonic era, until 1830; interrupted by the Hundred Days in 1815)
Spain under the Spanish Bourbons:
* ...
restored more autocratic rule. The
French Second Republic
The French Second Republic (french: Deuxième République Française or ), officially the French Republic (), was the republican government of France that existed between 1848 and 1852. It was established in February 1848, with the February Revo ...
had universal male suffrage but was followed by the
Second French Empire
The Second French Empire (; officially the French Empire, ), was the 18-year Empire, Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 14 January 1852 to 27 October 1870, between the French Second Republic, Second and the French Third Republic ...
. The
Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) resulted in the
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic (french: Troisième République, sometimes written as ) was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940 ...
.
Germany
Germany established its first democracy in 1919 with the creation of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is al ...
, a parliamentary republic created following the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
's defeat in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The Weimar Republic lasted only 14 years before it collapsed and
was replaced by
Nazi dictatorship
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
.
[Stefan Berger, "The Attempt at Democratization under Weimar" in ''European Democratization since 1800''. Eds. John Garrard, Vera Tolz & Ralph White (Springer, 2000), pp. 96-115.] Historians continue to debate the reasons why the Weimar Republic's attempt at democratization failed.
[ After Germany was militarily defeated in World War II, democracy was reestablished in ]West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
during the U.S.-led occupation which undertook the denazification
Denazification (german: link=yes, Entnazifizierung) was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the Nazi ideology following the Second World War. It was carried out by remov ...
of society.
Italy
The Kingdom of Italy
The Kingdom of Italy ( it, Regno d'Italia) was a state that existed from 1861, when Victor Emmanuel II of Kingdom of Sardinia, Sardinia was proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, proclaimed King of Italy, until 1946, when civil discontent led to ...
, after the unification of Italy in 1861, was a constitutional monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
with the King having considerable powers. Italian Fascism created a dictatorship after the World War I. World War II resulted in the Italian Republic
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.
Japan
In Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, limited democratic reforms were introduced during the Meiji period (when the industrial modernization of Japan began), the Taishō period (1912–1926), and the early Shōwa period.[Kent E. Calder, "East Asian Democratic Transitions" in ''The Making and Unmaking of Democracy: Lessons from History and World Politics'' (eds. Theodore K. Rabb & Ezra N. Suleiman: Routledge, 2003). pp. 251-59.] Despite pro-democracy movements such as the Freedom and People's Rights Movement
The (abbreviated as ) or Popular Rights Movement was a Japanese political and social movement for democracy in the 1880s. It pursued the formation of an elected legislature, revision of the Unequal Treaties with the United States and European c ...
(1870s and 1880s) and some proto-democratic institutions, Japanese society remained constrained by a highly conservative society and bureaucracy.[ Historian ]Kent E. Calder
Kent E. Calder (born April 18, 1948) is the Interim Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAISHe serves as the Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, and is also the Edwin O. Reischauer P ...
notes that writers that "Meiji leadership embraced constitutional government with some pluralist features for essentially tactical reasons" and that pre-World war II Japanese society was dominated by a "loose coalition" of "landed rural elites, big business, and the military" that was averse to pluralism and reformism.[ While the Imperial Diet survived the impacts of ]Japanese militarism
refers to the ideology in the Empire of Japan which advocates the belief that militarism should dominate the political and social life of the nation, and the belief that the strength of the military is equal to the strength of a nation.
Histo ...
, the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
, and the Pacific War
The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...
, other pluralistic institutions, such as political parties
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or pol ...
, did not. After World War II, during the Allied occupation, Japan adopted a much more vigorous, pluralistic democracy.[
]
Latin America
Countries in Latin America
Latin America or
* french: Amérique Latine, link=no
* ht, Amerik Latin, link=no
* pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...
became independent between 1810 and 1825, and soon had some early expriences with representative government and elections. All Latin American countries established representative institutions soon after independence, the early cases being those of Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
in 1810, Paraguay
Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...
and Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
in 1811, and Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
in 1818. Adam Przeworski
Adam Przeworski (; born May 5, 1940) is a Polish-American professor of political science specializing in comparative politics. He is Carroll and Milton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics of New York University. He is a scholar of dem ...
shows that some experiments with representative institutions in Latin America occurred earlier than in most European countries. Mass democracy, in which the working class had the right to vote, become common only in the 1930s and 1940s.
Causes
There is considerable debate about the factors which affect (e.g., promote or limit) democratization. Economic, cultural, and historical factors have been cited as impacting on the process. So too have historical and international factors. Moreover, some arguments are more structural in nature, while others focus on leadership and agency. It is useful to order the various arguments under different headings.
Economic factors
Economic development and modernization theory
Scholars such as Seymour Martin Lipset
Seymour Martin Lipset ( ; March 18, 1922 – December 31, 2006) was an American sociologist and political scientist (President of the American Political Science Association). His major work was in the fields of political sociology, trade union o ...
; Carles Boix and Susan Stokes
Susan Carol Stokes (born 1959) is an American political scientist and the Tiffany and Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in the Political Science department of the University of Chicago, and the faculty director of the Chicago Center on ...
, and Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Stephens, and John Stephens argue that economic development
In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...
increases the likelihood of democratization. Initially argued by Lipset in 1959, this subsequently been referred to as modernization theory
Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. The "classical" theories of modernization of the 1950s and 1960s drew on sociological analyses of Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim and a partial reading of Max Weber, ...
. According to Daniel Treisman, there is "a strong and consistent relationship between higher income and both democratization and democratic survival in the medium term (10–20 years), but not necessarily in shorter time windows." Robert Dahl
Robert Alan Dahl (; December 17, 1915 – February 5, 2014) was an American political theorist and Sterling Professor of Political Science at Yale University.
He established the pluralist theory of democracy—in which political outcomes are ...
argued that market economies provided favorable conditions for democratic institutions.
A higher GDP/capita correlates with democracy and some claim the wealthiest democracies have never been observed to fall into authoritarianism. The rise of Hitler and of the Nazis in Weimar Germany can be seen as an obvious counter-example, but although in early 1930s Germany was already an advanced economy, by that time, the country was also living in a state of economic crisis virtually since the first World War (in the 1910s), a crisis which was eventually worsened by the effects of the Great Depression. There is also the general observation that democracy was very rare before the industrial revolution. Empirical research thus led many to believe that economic development either increases chances for a transition to democracy, or helps newly established democracies consolidate. One study finds that economic development prompts democratization but only in the medium run (10–20 years). This is because development may entrench the incumbent leader but make it more difficult for him deliver the state to a son or trusted aide when he exits. However, the debate about whether democracy is a consequence of wealth, a cause of it, or both processes are unrelated, is far from conclusive. Another study suggests that economic development depends on the political stability of a country to promote democracy. Clark, Robert and Golder, in their reformulation of Albert Hirschman's model of ''Exit, Voice and Loyalty'', explain how it is not the increase of wealth in a country ''per se'' which influences a democratization process, but rather the changes in the socio-economic structures that come together with the increase of wealth. They explain how these structure changes have been called out to be one of the main reasons several European countries became democratic. When their socioeconomic structures shifted because modernization made the agriculture sector more efficient, bigger investments of time and resources were used for the manufacture and service sectors. In England, for example, members of the gentry began investing more on commercial activities that allowed them to become economically more important for the state. This new kind of productive activities came with new economic power were assets became more difficult for the state to count and hence more difficult to tax. Because of this, predation was no longer possible and the state had to negotiate with the new economic elites to extract revenue. A sustainable bargain had to be reached because the state became more dependent of its citizens remaining loyal and, with this, citizens had now leverage to be taken into account in the decision making process for the country.
Adam Przeworski
Adam Przeworski (; born May 5, 1940) is a Polish-American professor of political science specializing in comparative politics. He is Carroll and Milton Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics of New York University. He is a scholar of dem ...
and Fernando Limongi
Fernando de Magalhães Papaterra Limongi is a Brazilian political scientist who was a member of the Department of Political Science in the Faculty of Philosophy, Literature and Social Sciences at the University of São Paulo (USP) from 1986 until ...
argue that while economic development makes democracies less likely to turn authoritarian, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that development causes democratization (turning an authoritarian state into a democracy). Economic development can boost public support for authoritarian regimes in the short-to-medium term. Andrew J. Nathan
Andrew J. Nathan (; born 3 April 1943) is a professor of political science at Columbia University. He specializes in Chinese politics, foreign policy, human rights and political culture. Nathan attended Harvard University, where he earned a B.A. ...
argues that China is a problematic case for the thesis that economic development causes democratization. Michael Miller finds that development increases the likelihood of "democratization in regimes that are fragile and unstable, but makes this fragility less likely to begin with."
There is research to suggest that greater urbanization, through various pathways, contributes to democratization. A 2016 study found that preferential trade agreements "encourage the democratization of a country, in particular if the PTA partners are themselves democracies."
Numerous scholars and political thinkers have linked a large middle class
The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Commo ...
to the emergence and sustenance of democracy, whereas others have challenged this relationship.
In "Non-Modernization" (2022), Daron Acemoglu
Kamer Daron Acemoğlu (; born September 3, 1967) is a Turkish-born American economist who has taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) since 1993. He is currently the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. H ...
and James A. Robinson argue that modernization theory cannot account for various paths of political development "because it posits a link between economics and politics that is not conditional on institutions and culture and that presumes a definite endpoint—for example, an 'end of history'."
A meta-analysis by Gerardo L. Munck
Gerardo L. Munck is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California.
Career
Munck earned his undergraduate degree in political ...
of research on Lipset's argument shows that a majority of studies do not support the thesis that higher levels of economic development leads to more democracy.
Classes, cleavages and alliances
Sociologist Barrington Moore Jr.
Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005) was an American political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore.
He is well-known for his ''Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy'' (1966), a comparative study of ...
, in his influential Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966), argues that the distribution of power among classes – the peasantry, the bourgeoise and the landed aristocracy – and the nature of alliances between classes determined whether democratic, authoritarian or communist revolutions occurred. Moore also argued there were at least "three routes to the modern world" - the liberal democratic, the fascist, and the communist - each deriving from the timing of industrialization and the social structure at the time of transition. Thus, Moore challenged modernization theory, by stressing that there was not one path to the modern world and that economic development did not always bring about democracy.
Many authors have questioned parts of Moore's arguments. Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyne Stephens, and John D. Stephens, in ''Capitalist Development and Democracy'' (1992), raise questions about Moore's analysis of the role of the bourgeoisie in democratization. Eva Bellin argues that under certain circumstances, the bourgeoise and labor are more likely to favor democratization, but less so under other circumstances. Samuel Valenzuela argues that, counter to Moore's view, the landed elite supported democratization in Chile. A comprehensive assessment conducted by James Mahoney concludes that "Moore's specific hypotheses about democracy and authoritarianism receive only limited and highly conditional support."
A 2020 study linked democratization to the mechanization of agriculture
Mechanised agriculture or agricultural mechanization is the use of machinery and equipment, ranging from simple and basic hand tools to more sophisticated, motorized equipment and machinery, to perform agricultural operations. In modern times, po ...
: as landed elites became less reliant on the repression of agricultural workers, they became less hostile to democracy.
According to political scientist David Stasavage
David Stasavage is an American political scientist.
Stasavage attended a bachelor's degree at Cornell University in 1989, then obtained his doctorate from Harvard University in 1995. He subsequently went to Europe, working successively for the Wo ...
, representative government is "more likely to occur when a society is divided across multiple political cleavages." A 2021 study found that constitutions that emerge through pluralism (reflecting distinct segments of society) are more likely to induce liberal democracy (at least, in the short term).
Political-economic factors
Rulers' need for taxation
Robert Bates and Donald Lien, as well as David Stasavage, have argued that rulers' need for taxes gave asset-owning elites the bargaining power to demand a say on public policy, thus giving rise to democratic institutions. Montesquieu
Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de Montesquieu (; ; 18 January 168910 February 1755), generally referred to as simply Montesquieu, was a French judge, man of letters, historian, and political philosopher.
He is the principa ...
argued that the mobility of commerce meant that rulers had to bargain with merchants in order to tax them, otherwise they would lead the country or hide their commercial activities. Stasavage argues that the small size and backwardness of European states, as well as the weakness of European rulers, after the fall of the Roman Empire meant that European rulers had to obtain consent from their population to govern effectively.
According to Clark, Golder, and Golder, an application of Albert O. Hirschman
Albert Otto Hirschman (born ''Otto-Albert Hirschmann''; April 7, 1915 – December 10, 2012) was a German economist and the author of several books on political economy and political ideology. His first major contribution was in the area of de ...
's exit, voice, and loyalty model is that if individuals have plausible exit options, then a government may be more likely to democratize. James C. Scott
James C. Scott (born December 2, 1936) is an American political scientist and anthropologist specializing in comparative politics. He is a comparative scholar of agrarian society, agrarian and non-state societies, Subaltern (postcolonialism), ...
argues that governments may find it difficult to claim a sovereignty over a population when that population is in motion. Scott additionally asserts that exit may not solely include physical exit from the territory of a coercive state, but can include a number of adaptive responses to coercion that make it more difficult for states to claim sovereignty over a population. These responses can include planting crops that are more difficult for states to count, or tending livestock that are more mobile. In fact, the entire political arrangement of a state is a result of individuals adapting to the environment, and making a choice as to whether or not to stay in a territory. If people are free to move, then the exit, voice, and loyalty model predicts that a state will have to be of that population representative, and appease the populous in order to prevent them from leaving. If individuals have plausible exit options then they are better able to constrain a government's arbitrary behaviour through threat of exit.
Inequality and democracy
Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson argued that the relationship between social equality
Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and ...
and democratic transition is complicated: People have less incentive to revolt in an egalitarian society (for example, Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
), so the likelihood of democratization is lower. In a highly unequal society (for example, South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
under Apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
), the redistribution of wealth and power in a democracy would be so harmful to elites that these would do everything to prevent democratization. Democratization is more likely to emerge somewhere in the middle, in the countries, whose elites offer concessions because (1) they consider the threat of a revolution credible and (2) the cost of the concessions is not too high. This expectation is in line with the empirical research showing that democracy is more stable in egalitarian societies.
Other approaches to the relationship between inequality and democracy have been presented by Carles Boix
Carles Boix i Serra (born 29 June 1962, in Barcelona) is a Spanish and American political scientist specializing in comparative politics, currently teaching at Princeton University. He is a leading scholar in empirical democratic theory and compar ...
, Stephan Haggard
Stephan Haggard is the Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies at the School of Global Policy and Strategy and distinguished professor of political scientist specializing in comparative politics at the University of California ...
and Robert Kaufman, and Ben Ansell
Ben W. Ansell (born 1977) is Professor of Comparative Democratic Institutions at Nuffield College, University of Oxford and, with David Samuels, editor of ''Comparative Political Studies''.
Education
Ansell graduated with a first-class degree ...
and David Samuels.
In their 2019 book ''The Narrow Corridor'' and a 2022 study in the ''American Political Science Review'', Acemoglu and Robinson argue that the nature of the relationship between elites and society determine whether stable democracy emerges. When elites are overly dominant, despotic states emerge. When society is overly dominant, weak states emerge. When elites and society are evenly balance, inclusive states emerge.
Natural resources
Research shows that oil wealth lowers levels of democracy and strengthens autocratic rule. According to Michael Ross, petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
is the sole resource that has "been consistently correlated with less democracy and worse institutions" and is the "key variable in the vast majority of the studies" identifying some type of resource curse
The resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse ...
effect. A 2014 meta-analysis confirms the negative impact of oil wealth on democratization.
Thad Dunning proposes a plausible explanation for Ecuador's return to democracy that contradicts the conventional wisdom that natural resource rents encourage authoritarian governments. Dunning proposes that there are situations where natural resource rents, such as those acquired through oil, reduce the risk of distributive or social policies to the elite because the state has other sources of revenue to finance this kind of policies that is not the elite wealth or income. And in countries plagued with high inequality, which was the case of Ecuador in the 1970s, the result would be a higher likelihood of democratization. In 1972, the military coup had overthrown the government in large part because of the fears of elites that redistribution would take place.[Thad Dunning. 2008. ''Crude Democracy: Natural Resource Wealth and Political Regimes''. Cambridge University Press. Ch. 1, p. 34.] That same year oil became an increasing financial source for the country. Although the rents were used to finance the military, the eventual second oil boom of 1979 ran parallel to the country's re-democratization. Ecuador's re-democratization can then be attributed, as argued by Dunning, to the large increase of oil rents, which enabled not only a surge in public spending but placated the fears of redistribution that had grappled the elite circles. The exploitation of Ecuador's resource rent enabled the government to implement price and wage policies that benefited citizens at no cost to the elite and allowed for a smooth transition and growth of democratic institutions.
The thesis that oil and other natural resources have a negative impact on democracy has been challenged by historian Stephen Haber
Stephen H. Haber (born July 12, 1957) is a professor of political science and history known for his work on the political institutions and economic policies that promote innovation and improvements in living standards. Haber is a professor in the ...
and political scientist Victor Menaldo in a widely cited article in the ''American Political Science Review'' (2011). Haber and Menaldo argue that "natural resource reliance is not an exogenous variable" and find that when tests of the relationship between natural resources and democracy take this point into account "increases in resource reliance are not associated with authoritarianism."
Cultural factors
Values and religion
It is claimed by some that certain cultures are simply more conducive to democratic values than others. This view is likely to be ethnocentric
Ethnocentrism in social science and anthropology—as well as in colloquial English discourse—means to apply one's own culture or ethnicity as a frame of reference to judge other cultures, practices, behaviors, beliefs, and people, instead of ...
. Typically, it is Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
which is cited as "best suited" to democracy, with other cultures portrayed as containing values which make democracy difficult or undesirable. This argument is sometimes used by undemocratic regimes to justify their failure to implement democratic reforms. Today, however, there are many non-Western democracies. Examples include: India, Japan, Indonesia, Namibia, Botswana, Taiwan, and South Korea. Research finds that "Western-educated leaders significantly and substantively improve a country's democratization prospects".
Huntington presented an influential, but also controversial arguments about Confucianism and Islam. Huntington held that that "In practice Confucian or Confucian-influenced societies have been inhospitable to democracy." He also held that "Islamic doctrine ... contains elements that may be both congenial and uncongenial to democracy," but generally thought that Islam was an obstacle to democratization. In contrast, Alfred Stepan
Alfred C. Stepan (July 22, 1936 – September 27, 2017) was an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He was the Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University, where he was also director of the Center ...
was more optimistic about the compatibility of different religions and democracy.
Steven Fish
Michael Steven Fish (born August 3, 1962) is a professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests include democracy, authoritarianism, postcommunist countries, legislatures and constitutional systems, ...
and Robert Barro
Robert Joseph Barro (born September 28, 1944) is an American macroeconomist and the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Barro is considered one of the founders of new classical macroeconomics, along with Robert Lucas, Jr ...
have linked Islam to undemocratic outcomes. However, Michael Ross argues that the lack of democracies in some parts of the Muslim world has more to do with the adverse effects of the resource curse than Islam. Lisa Blaydes and Eric Chaney have linked the democratic divergence between the West and the Middle-East to the reliance on mamluk
Mamluk ( ar, مملوك, mamlūk (singular), , ''mamālīk'' (plural), translated as "one who is owned", meaning " slave", also transliterated as ''Mameluke'', ''mamluq'', ''mamluke'', ''mameluk'', ''mameluke'', ''mamaluke'', or ''marmeluke'') ...
s (slave soldiers) by Muslim rulers whereas European rulers had to rely on local elites for military forces, thus giving those elites bargaining power to push for representative government.
Robert Dahl argued, in ''On Democracy'', that countries with a "democratic political culture" were more prone for democratization and democratic survival. He also argued that cultural homogeneity and smallness contribute to democratic survival. Other scholars have however challenged the notion that small states and homogeneity strengthen democracy.
A 2012 study found that areas in Africa with Protestant missionaries were more likely to become stable democracies. A 2020 study failed to replicate those findings.
Sirianne Dahlum and Carl Henrik Knutsen offer a test of the Ronald Inglehart and Christian Welzel revised version of modernization theory, which focuses on cultural traits triggered by economic development that are presummed to be conducive to democratization. They find "no empirical support" for the Inglehart and Welzel thesis and conclude that "self-expression values do not enhance democracy levels or democratization chances, and neither do they stabilize existing democracies."
Education
It has long been theorized that education promotes stable and democratic societies. Research shows that education leads to greater political tolerance, increases the likelihood of political participation and reduces inequality. One study finds "that increases in levels of education improve levels of democracy and that the democratizing effect of education is more intense in poor countries".
It is commonly claimed that democracy and democratization were important drivers of the expansion of primary education around the world. However, new evidence from historical education trends challenges this assertion. An analysis of historical student enrollment rates for 109 countries from 1820 to 2010 finds no support for the claim that democratization increased access to primary education around the world. It is true that transitions to democracy often coincided with an acceleration in the expansion of primary education, but the same acceleration was observed in countries that remained non-democratic.
Social capital and civil society
Robert Putnam
Robert David Putnam (born 1941) is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Putnam develo ...
argues that certain characteristics make societies more likely to have cultures of civic engagement that lead to more participatory democracies. Putnam argues that communities with denser horizontal networks of civic association are able to better build the "norms of trust, reciprocity, and civic engagement" that lead to democratization and well-functioning participatory democracies. Putnam contrasts communities with dense horizontal networks to communities with vertical networks and patron-client relations, and asserts that the latter are unlikely to build the culture of civic engagement necessary for democratization.
Sheri Berman
Sheri is a female given name, from the French for ''beloved'', and may refer to:
* Sheri Anderson, American TV writer
* Sheri Everts, American academic
* Sheri Forde, Canadian reporter
* Sheri Graner Ray, video game specialist
* Sheri L. Dew (b ...
has rebutted Putnam's theory that civil society contributes to democratization, writing that in the case of the Weimar Republic, civil society facilitated the rise of the Nazi Party. Subsequent empirical research has lent support for Berman's argument. Yale University political scientist Daniel Mattingly argues civil society in China helps the authoritarian regime in China to cement control.
Research indicates that democracy protests are associated with democratization. According to a study by Freedom House, in 67 countries where dictatorships have fallen since 1972, nonviolent civic resistance was a strong influence over 70 percent of the time. In these transitions, changes were catalyzed not through foreign invasion, and only rarely through armed revolt or voluntary elite-driven reforms, but overwhelmingly by democratic civil society organizations utilizing nonviolent action and other forms of civil resistance, such as strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience, and mass protests. A 2016 study found that about a quarter of all cases of democracy protests between 1989 and 2011 lead to democratization.
Theories based on political agents and choices
Elite-opposition negotiations and contingency
Scholars such as Dankwart A. Rustow, and Guillermo O'Donnell
Guillermo Alberto O'Donnell Ure (February 24, 1936 – November 29, 2011) was a prominent Argentine political scientist, specializing in comparative politics, who spent most of his career working in Argentina and the United States, and who m ...
and Philippe C. Schmitter
Philippe C. Schmitter is an American political scientist specializing in comparative politics. He is Emeritus Professor of the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute.
Career
Schmitter has a B.A. from Da ...
in their classic ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies'' (1986), argued against the notion that there are structural "big" causes of democratization. These scholars instead emphasize how the democratization process occurs in a more contingent manner that depends on the characteristics and circumstances of the elites who ultimately oversee the shift from authoritarianism to democracy.
O'Donnell and Schmitter proposed a strategic choice approach to transitions to democracy that highlighted how they were driven by the decisions of different actors in response to a core set of dilemmas. The analysis centered on the interaction among four actors: the hard-liners and soft-liners who belonged to the incumbent authoritarian regime, and the moderate and radical oppositions against the regime. This book not only became the point of reference for a burgeoning academic literature on democratic transitions
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...
, it was also read widely by political activists engaged in actual struggles to achieve democracy.
Adam Przeworski, in ''Democracy and the Market'' (1991), offered the first analysis of the interaction between rulers and opposition in transitions to democracy using rudimentary game theory
Game theory is the study of mathematical models of strategic interactions among rational agents. Myerson, Roger B. (1991). ''Game Theory: Analysis of Conflict,'' Harvard University Press, p.&nbs1 Chapter-preview links, ppvii–xi It has appli ...
. and he emphasizes the interdependence of political and economic transformations.
Elite-driven democratization
Scholars have argued that processes of democratization may be elite-driven or driven by the authoritarian incumbents as a way for those elites to retain power amid popular demands for representative government. If the costs of repression are higher than the costs of giving away power, authoritarians may opt for democratization and inclusive institutions. According to a 2020 study, authoritarian-led democratization is more likely to lead to lasting democracy in cases when the party strength of the authoritarian incumbent is high. However, Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo argue that democratizing rules implemented by outgoing authoritarians may distort democracy in favor of the outgoing authoritarian regime and its supporters, resulting in "bad" institutions that are hard to get rid of. According to Michael K. Miller, elite-driven democratization is particularly likely in the wake of major violent shocks (either domestic or international) which provide openings to opposition actors to the authoritarian regime. Dan Slater and Joseph Wrong argue that dictators in Asia chose to implement democratic reforms when they were in positions of strength in order to retain and revitalize their power.
According to a study by political scientist Daniel Treisman, influential theories of democratization posit that autocrats "deliberately choose to share or surrender power. They do so to prevent revolution, motivate citizens to fight wars, incentivize governments to provide public goods
In economics, a public good (also referred to as a social good or collective good)Oakland, W. H. (1987). Theory of public goods. In Handbook of public economics (Vol. 2, pp. 485-535). Elsevier. is a good that is both non-excludable and non-riva ...
, outbid elite rivals, or limit factional violence." His study shows that in many cases, "democratization occurred not because incumbent elites chose it but because, in trying to prevent it, they made mistakes that weakened their hold on power. Common mistakes include: calling elections or starting military conflicts, only to lose them; ignoring popular unrest and being overthrown; initiating limited reforms that get out of hand; and selecting a covert democrat as leader. These mistakes reflect well-known cognitive biases such as overconfidence
Confidence is a state of being clear-headed either that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective. Confidence comes from a Latin word 'fidere' which means "to trust"; therefore, having ...
and the illusion of control
The illusion of control is the tendency for people to overestimate their ability to control events. It was named by U.S. psychologist Ellen Langer and is thought to influence gambling behavior and belief in the paranormal. Along with illusory supe ...
."
Sharun Mukand and Dani Rodrik
Dani Rodrik (born August 14, 1957) is a Turkish economist and Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was formerly the Albert O. Hirschman Professor of th ...
dispute that elite-driven democratization produce liberal democracy. They argue that low levels of inequality and weak identity cleavages are necessary for liberal democracy to emerge. A 2020 study by several political scientists from German universities found that democratization through bottom-up peaceful protests led to higher levels of democracy and democratic stability than democratization prompted by elites.
The three dictatorship types, monarchy, civilian and military have different approaches to democratization as a result of their individual goals. Monarchic and civilian dictatorships seek to remain in power indefinitely through hereditary rule in the case of monarchs or through oppression in the case of civilian dictators. A military dictatorship seizes power to act as a caretaker government to replace what they consider a flawed civilian government. Military dictatorships are more likely to transition to democracy because at the onset, they are meant to be stop-gap solutions while a new acceptable government forms.
Research suggests that the threat of civil conflict encourages regimes to make democratic concessions. A 2016 study found that drought-induced riots in Sub-Saharan Africa lead regimes, fearing conflict, to make democratic concessions.
Scrambled constituencies
Mancur Olson
Mançur Lloyd Olson Jr. (; January 22, 1932 – February 19, 1998) was an American economist and political scientist who taught at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most influential contributions were in institutional economics, and i ...
theorizes that the process of democratization occurs when elites are unable to reconstitute an autocracy. Olson suggests that this occurs when constituencies or identity groups are mixed within a geographic region. He asserts that this mixed geographic constituencies requires elites to for democratic and representative institutions to control the region, and to limit the power of competing elite groups.
Death or ouster of dictator
One analysis found that "Compared with other forms of leadership turnover in autocracies—such as coups, elections, or term limits—which lead to regime collapse about half of the time, the death of a dictator is remarkably inconsequential. ... of the 79 dictators who have died in office (1946–2014)... in the vast majority (92%) of cases, the regime persists after the autocrat's death."
International factors
War and national security
Jeffrey Herbst
Jeffrey I. Herbst is an American political scientist, specializing in comparative politics, and in July 2018 became the president of the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California. Herbst was previously the 16th president of Colgate U ...
, in his paper "War and the State in Africa" (1990), explains how democratization in European states was achieved through political development fostered by war-making and these "lessons from the case of Europe show that war is an important cause of state formation
State formation is the process of the development of a centralized government structure in a situation where one did not exist prior to its development. State formation has been a study of many disciplines of the social sciences for a number of ...
that is missing in Africa today."[Herbst, Jeffrey. "War and the State in Africa." ''International Security'' (1990): 117-139.] Herbst writes that war and the threat of invasion by neighbors caused European state to more efficiently collect revenue, forced leaders to improve administrative capabilities, and fostered state unification and a sense of national identity (a common, powerful association between the state and its citizens).[ Herbst writes that in Africa and elsewhere in the non-European world "states are developing in a fundamentally new environment" because they mostly "gained Independence without having to resort to combat and have not faced a security threat since independence."][ Herbst notes that the strongest non-European states, ]South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
and Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, are "largely 'warfare' states that have been molded, in part, by the near constant threat of external aggression."[
Elizabeth Kier has challenged claims that total war prompts democratization, showing in the cases of the UK and Italy during World War I that the policies adopted by the Italian government during World War I prompted a fascist backlash whereas UK government policies towards labor undermined broader democratization.
]
War and peace
Wars may contribute to the state-building
State-building as a specific term in social sciences and humanities, refers to political and historical processes of creation, institutional consolidation, stabilization and sustainable development of states, from the earliest emergence of state ...
that precedes a transition to democracy, but war is mainly a serious obstacle to democratization. While adherents of the democratic peace theory
The democratic peace theory posits that democracies are hesitant to engage in armed conflict with other identified democracies. Among proponents of the democratic peace theory, several factors are held as motivating peace between democratic st ...
believe that democracy causes peace, the territorial peace theory
The territorial peace theory finds that the stability of a country's borders has a large influence on the political climate of the country. Peace and stable borders foster a democratic and tolerant climate, while territorial conflicts with neighbo ...
makes the opposite claim that peace causes democracy. In fact, war and territorial threats to a country are likely to increase authoritarianism
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political '' status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic vot ...
and lead to autocracy.
This is supported by historical evidence showing that in almost all cases, peace has come before democracy. A number of scholars have argued that there is little support for the hypothesis that democracy causes peace, but strong evidence for the opposite hypothesis that peace leads to democracy.
Christian Welzel's human empowerment theory posits that existential security leads to emancipative cultural values and support for a democratic political organization. This is in agreement with theories based on evolutionary psychology
Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach in psychology that examines cognition and behavior from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify human psychological adaptations with regards to the ancestral problems they evolv ...
. The so-called regality theory The theory of regal and kungic societal structures, or regality theory, is a theory that seeks to explain certain cultural differences based on perceived collective danger and fear.
People will show a psychological preference for a strong leader ...
finds that people develop a psychological preference for a strong leader and an authoritarian
Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic votin ...
form of government in situations of war or perceived collective danger. On the other hand, people will support egalitarian
Egalitarianism (), or equalitarianism, is a school of thought within political philosophy that builds from the concept of social equality, prioritizing it for all people. Egalitarian doctrines are generally characterized by the idea that all hum ...
values and a preference for democracy in situations of peace and safety. The consequence of this is that a society will develop in the direction of autocracy
Autocracy is a system of government in which absolute power over a state is concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject neither to external legal restraints nor to regularized mechanisms of popular control (except perh ...
and an authoritarian government when people perceive collective danger, while the development in the democratic direction requires collective safety.
International institutions
A number of studies have found that institutional institutions have helped facilitate democratization. Thomas Risse
Thomas Risse (formerly Risse-Kappen) is a Berlin-based international relations scholar. He currently acts as chair for “transnational relations, foreign- and security policy” at the Otto-Suhr Institute for Political Science at Freie Universit ...
wrote in 2009, "there is a consensus in the literature on Eastern Europe that the EU membership perspective had a huge anchoring effects for the new democracies." Scholars have also linked NATO expansion
NATO is a military alliance of twenty-eight European and two North American countries that constitutes a system of collective defense. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which allows ...
with playing a role in democratization. international forces can significantly affect democratization. Global forces like the diffusion of democratic ideas and pressure from international financial institutions to democratize have led o democratization.
Promotion, and foreign influence and intervention
The European Union has contributed to the spread of democracy, in particular by encouraging democratic reforms in aspiring member states. Thomas Risse
Thomas Risse (formerly Risse-Kappen) is a Berlin-based international relations scholar. He currently acts as chair for “transnational relations, foreign- and security policy” at the Otto-Suhr Institute for Political Science at Freie Universit ...
wrote in 2009, "there is a consensus in the literature on Eastern Europe that the EU membership perspective had a huge anchoring effects for the new democracies."
Steven Levitsky
Steven Levitsky (born January 17, 1968) is an American political scientist and Professor of Government at Harvard University. A comparative political scientist, his research interests focus on Latin America and include political parties and pa ...
and Lucan Way have argued that close ties to the West increased the likelihood of democratization after the end of the Cold War, whereas states with weak ties to the West adopted competitive authoritarian regimes.
A 2002 study found that membership in regional organization
Regional organizations (ROs) are, in a sense, international organizations (IOs), as they incorporate international membership and encompass geopolitical entities that operationally transcend a single nation state. However, their membership is c ...
s "is correlated with transitions to democracy during the period from 1950 to 1992."
A 2004 study found no evidence that foreign aid led to democratization.
Democracies have often been imposed by military intervention, for example in Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
after World War II
The aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era started in late 1945 (when World War II ended) for all countries involved, defined by the decline of all colonial empires and simultaneous rise of two superpowers; the Soviet Union (U ...
. In other cases, decolonization
Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...
sometimes facilitated the establishment of democracies that were soon replaced by authoritarian regimes. For example, Syria, after gaining independence from French mandatory control at the beginning of the Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, failed to consolidate its democracy, so it eventually collapsed and was replaced by a Ba'athist dictatorship.
Robert Dahl argued in ''On Democracy'' that foreign interventions contributed to democratic failures, citing Soviet interventions in Central and Eastern Europe and U.S. interventions in Latin America. However, the delegitimization of empires contributed to the emergence of democracy as former colonies gained independence and implemented democracy.
Geographic factors
Some scholars link the emergence and sustenance of democracies to areas with access to the sea, which tends to increase the mobility of people, goods, capital, and ideas.
Historical factors
Historical legacies
In seeking to explain why North America developed stable democracies and Latin America did not, Seymour Martin Lipset, in ''The Democratic Century'' (2004), holds that the reason is that the initial patterns of colonization, the subsequent process of economic incorporation of the new colonies, and the wars of independence varies. The divergent histories of Britain and Iberia are seen as creating different cultural legacies that affected the prospects of democracy. A related argument is presented by James A. Robinson in "Critical Junctures and Developmental Paths" (2022).
Sequencing
Scholars have discussed whether the order in which things happen help or hinder the process of democratization. An early discussion occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. Dankwart Rustow argued that "'the most effective sequence' is the pursuit of national unity, government authority, and political equality, in that order." Eric Nordlinger and Samuel Huntington stressed "the importance of developing effective governmental institutions before the emergence of mass participation in politics." Robert Dahl, in ''Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition'' (1971), held that the "commonest sequence among the older and more stable polyarchies has been some approximation of the ... path n which
N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''.
History
...
competitive politics preceded expansion in participation."
In the 2010s, the discusion focused on the impact of the sequencing between state building and democratization. Francis Fukuyama
Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer.
Fukuyama is known for his book ''The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which argue ...
, in Political Order and Political Decay
''Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalisation of Democracy'' is a 2014 book by American political scientist Francis Fukuyama. The book follows Fukuyama's 2011 book, ''The Origins of Political Order'', ...
(2014), echoes Huntington's "state-first" argument and holds that those "countries in which democracy preceded modern state-building have had much greater problems achieving high-quality governance." This view has been supported by Sheri Berman
Sheri is a female given name, from the French for ''beloved'', and may refer to:
* Sheri Anderson, American TV writer
* Sheri Everts, American academic
* Sheri Forde, Canadian reporter
* Sheri Graner Ray, video game specialist
* Sheri L. Dew (b ...
, who offers a sweeping overview of European history and concludes that "sequencing matters" and that "without strong states .. liberal democracy is difficult if not impossible to achieve."
However, this state-first thesis has been challenged. Relying on a comparison of Denmark and Greece, and quantitative research on 180 countries across 1789–2019, Haakon Gjerløw, Carl Henrik Knutsen, Tore Wig, and Matthew C. Wilson, in ''One Road to Riches?'' (2022), "find little evidence to support the stateness-first argument." Based on a comparison of European and Latin American countries, Sebastián Mazzuca and Gerardo Munck, in ''A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap'' (2021), argue that counter to the state-first thesis, the "starting point of political developments is less important than whether the State–democracy relationship is a virtuous cycle, triggering causal mechanisms that reinforce each."
Critiques related to gender and race
Gender and waves of democratization
One of the critiques of Huntington's periodization is that it "ignores the requirement of universal suffrage." Relatedly, as Pamela Paxton showed, "when women are included in measures of democracy, the notion of waves of democracy (Huntington 1991) is no longer strongly supported." Paxton shows that once women's suffrage is taken into account, the data reveal "a long, continuous democratization period from 1893-1958, with only war-related reversals."
Gender and race in theories of democratization
Two broad problems have been identified in theories of democratization. Georgina Waylen
Georgina Nicola Alexandra Waylen, (born 1959) is a British political scientist, specialising in comparative politics, political economy, and gender and politics. Since April 2012, she has been Professor of Politics at the University of Manchester. ...
has argued that the lack of a gendered approach has been a glaring problem. Michael Hanchard
Michael Hanchard, often published as Michael G. Hanchard, is an American political scientist, currently the Gustave C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the director of the Marginalized Populati ...
, in ''The Spectre of Race'' (2018), provides a thorough review of the literature and holds that theories have not adequately acknowledged how ethno-national and racial hierarchies shape the process and prospects of democratization.[Michael G. Hanchard, ''The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy''. Princeton University Press, 2018.]
References
Further reading
Key works
* Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2006. ''Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy.'' New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Albertus, Michael and Victor Menaldo. 2018. ''Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Berman, Sheri. 2019. ''Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe: From the Ancien Régime to the Present Day''. New York: Oxford University Press.
* Boix, Carles. 2003. ''Democracy and Redistribution''. New York: Cambridge University Press
* Brancati, Dawn. 2016. ''Democracy Protests: Origins, Features and Significance''. New York: Cambridge University Press
* Carothers, Thomas. 1999. ''Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve''. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
* Collier, Ruth Berins. 1999. ''Paths Toward Democracy: Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America''. New York: Cambridge University Press
* Coppedge, Michael, Amanda Edgell, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Staffan I. Lindberg (eds.). 2022. ''Why Democracies Develop and Decline''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Fukuyama, Francis. 2014. ''Political Order and Political Decay. From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
* Haggard, Stephen and Robert Kaufman. 2016. ''Dictators and Democrats: Elites, Masses, and Regime Change''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* Inglehart, Ronald and Christian Welzel. 2005. ''Modernization, Cultural Change and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Hadenius, Axel. 2001. ''Institutions and Democratic Citizenship''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Levitsky, Steven, and Lucan A. Way. 2010. ''Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Linz, Juan J., and Alfred Stepan. 1996. ''Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America and Post-Communist Europe''. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1959. "Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy." ''American Political Science Review'' 53(1): 69-105.
* Mainwaring, Scott, and Aníbal Pérez-Liñán. 2014. ''Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America. Emergence, Survival, and Fall''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Møller, Jørgen and Svend-Erik Skaaning (eds.). 2016. ''The State-Democracy Nexus. Conceptual Distinctions, Theoretical Perspectives, and Comparative Approaches''. London: Routledge.
* O'Donnell, Guillermo, and Philippe C. Schmitter. 1986. ''Transitions from Authoritarian Rule. Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies''. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
* Przeworski, Adam. 1991. ''Democracy and the Market. Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Przeworski, Adam, Michael E. Alvarez, José Antonio Cheibub, and Fernando Limongi. 2000. ''Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950-1990''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Rosenfeld, Bryn. 2020. ''The Autocratic Middle Class: How State Dependency Reduces the Demand for Democracy''. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press.
* Schaffer, Frederic C. ''Democracy in Translation: Understanding Politics in an Unfamiliar Culture''. 1998. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Teele, Dawn Langan. 2018. ''Forging the Franchise: The Political Origins of the Women's Vote''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* Teorell, Jan. 2010. ''Determinants of Democratization: Explaining Regime Change in the World, 1972 -2006''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Tilly, Charles. 2004. ''Contention and Democracy in Europe, 1650-2000''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Tilly, Charles. 2007. ''Democracy''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Vanhanen, Tatu. 2003. ''Democratization: A Comparative Analysis of 170 Countries''. Routledge.
* Welzel, Christian. 2013. ''Freedom Rising: Human Empowerment and the Quest for Emancipation''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
* Weyland, Kurt. 2014. ''Making Waves: Democratic Contention in Europe and Latin America since the Revolutions of 1848''. New York: Cambridge University Press
* Zakaria, Fareed. ''The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad''. 2003. New York: W.W. Norton.
* Ziblatt, Daniel. 2017. ''Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy''. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Overviews of the research
* Bunce, Valerie. 2000. "Comparative Democratization: Big and Bounded Generalizations." ''Comparative Political Studies'' 33(6-7): 703-34.
* Cheibub, José Antonio, and James Raymond Vreeland. 2018. "Modernization Theory: Does Economic Development Cause Democratization?" pp. 3-21, in Carol Lancaster and Nicolas van de Walle (eds.), ''Oxford Handbook of the Politics of Development''. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
* Coppedge, Michael. 2012. ''Democratization and Research Methods''. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
* Geddes, Barbara. 1999. "What Do We Know About Democratization After Twenty Years?" ''Annual Review of Political Science'' 2:1, 115-14
* Mazzuca, Sebastián. 2010. "Macrofoundations of Regime Change: Democracy, State Formation, and Capitalist Development." ''Comparative Politics'' 43(1): 1-19.
* Møller, Jørgen, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. 2013. ''Democracy and Democratization in Comparative Perspective: Conceptions, Conjunctures, Causes and Consequences''. London, UK: Routledge.
* Munck, Gerardo L. 2015. "Democratic Transitions," pp. 97-100, in James D. Wright (ed.), ''International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences'' 2nd edn., Vol. 6. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Scienc
* Potter, David. 1997. "Explaining Democratization," pp. 1-40, in David Potter, David Goldblatt, Margaret Kiloh, and Paul Lewis (eds.), ''Democratization''. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press and The Open University.
* Welzel, Christian. 2009. "Theories of Democratization," pp. 74-91, in Christian W. Haerpfer, Patrick Bernhagen, Ronald F. Inglehart, and Christian Welzel (eds.), ''Democratization''. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
* Wucherpfennig, Julian, and Franziska Deutsch. 2009. "Modernization and Democracy: Theories and Evidence Revisited." ''Living Reviews in Democracy'' Vol. 1, p. 1-9. 9
External links
International IDEA
(International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance
The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) is an intergovernmental organization that works to support and strengthen democratic institutions and processes around the world, to develop sustainable, eff ...
)
*Muno, Wolfgang. 2012
"Democratization"
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