Democracy in Transition (original) (raw)
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Transition to Democracy: What We Know and What We Should Know
2014
When considering transitions and installations during the last decades of the 20th century and the first decade of XXI century, the variety of processes is so wide that to achieve meaningful theoretical results is very difficult, as shown very explicitly by the existing literature on the topic. In this paper we cope with three key issues in the research on transition. First, what are the theoretical results of the studies on the topic and why there is a 'retreat from theory'? Second, what is the best approach in analysing transitions: the actor oriented approach or the structure oriented approach? And how is this issue related to the analysis of democratic installation, which has been neglected as an autonomous process and usually not distinguished by the transition. A third issue we address, which has received no strong, direct attention within the literature on transition, is: what ultimately is the mechanism or the key reason accounting for all those political changes that so greatly affected the lives of millions of people during and after the last decades of the 20th century?
The paper is presented to explain democracy and its forms. It mainly focuses representative democracy and its role in the process of transition. Historical details, facts and figures and references are given to reinforce their effectiveness in the process of transition. The etymology of the word ‘democracy’ shows that it traces back to Greek where ‘demos’ and ‘kratos’ stand for ‘people’ and ‘rule’ respectively. If viewed historically, the concept of democracy is also found in ancient times, especially ancient Greece. In 2500 BC, the city states of Athens used to consider public opinions contrary to the autocratic way of decision making. The ancients in Athens granted people the right to access the government offices and courts. In reality, it was not the democracy in its true sense as women and slaves were still excluded in decision making process but it was something intermediate and had contributed to some extent towards the formation of democratization in the past. The present age is an age where Democracy echoes across the world. Broadly speaking, democracy is defined as the rule of people. A number of other definitions have been given by different scholars. According to Abraham Lincoln, it is the government of the people by the people for the people. Another definition is that Democracy is not majority rule democracy is diffusion of power, representation of interest, recognition of minorities. In this system people possess the right to vote. As a result, the representatives they select put forward the thoughts of the people. The principle of democracy has now been extended and this rule is applied to companies, universities, institutions, unions and a number of other bodies. In this system, the views of the people affect the laws constituted in the assemblies. The decisions taken by the government thus possess an element of public participation. It is an admitted fact that democracy has been proved to be the best form of government. This is evident from the number of countries in the present who in one way or the other are valuing democratic norms.
Transitional democracies are inherently unstable due to the very nature of the transitional process that seeks to introduce sometimes very dramatic changes in a polity. Many of the transitional democracies in the last two decades have experienced broad based political reforms that were designed to dismantle the preceding authoritarian regimes and pave way for experimentation with democratic processes and rules of governance. The recession of authoritarianism is never without a fight against emerging democratic forces with new values, rules and procedures that challenge an established old order for a few that were strongly entrenched. The transition process generates tension of immense consequences for the economy and the polity raising incredible security concerns as a result of the inherent fluidity in emerging, but yet to be entrenched rules, procedures and processes. Transitional democracies, therefore, require strong and focused leadership to facilitate the construction of resilient democratic institutions to boost public confidence with transparent governance measures that lend legitimacy to emerging governance outcomes from the transition. This more than anything else is the surest way to deal with likely security challenges consequent upon the transition. Key words: Transitional Democracies, security, authoritarianism, governance outcomes, leadership
Getting to Democracy Lessons From Successful Transitions
2015
ABRAHAM F. LOWENTHAL is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Founding Director of the Inter-American Dialogue. SERGIO BITAR is President of Chile’s Foundation for Democracy and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue. He was a Chilean Senator from 1994 to 2002. They are the co-editors of Democratic Transitions: Conversations With World Leaders (Johns Hopkins University Press and International IDEA, 2015), from which this essay is adapted.
Democratic Transition Studies: Lessons from another Region
Edinburgh University Press, 2021
This chapter by Azmi Bishara is part of the edited book by Abdelwahab El-Affendi and Khalil Al Anani titled "After the Arab Revolutions: Decentring Democratic Transition Theory", published by Edinburgh University Press in 2021. "After the Arab Revolutions" brings together experienced scholars from the region and beyond to cast new light on the challenges facing democratic transitions and democratic stability. Rather than taking refuge in ‘context’ and ‘regional specificity’ to excuse failures to unpack Arab politics, the book argues that sound political science should – and could – prove relevant across regions and cultures. Contents: Preface 1. Introduction: Rethinking Transition Theory after the ‘Arab Moment’ 2. Democratic Transition Studies: Lessons from another Region 3. The Moderation of Insecurity: Standing the Eurocentric Democratic Transition Paradigm on its Head 4. After the Arab Spring 5. Revolutions and the Colonial Question 6. Authoritarian Regime Types as an Alternative to the Transition Paradigm: A Critical Assessment 7. Visible and Invisible Political Actors and their Strategies during the Arab Spring Transitions 8. Elite Women and Democratisation in Morocco: 1998–2016 9. Rethinking Religion and Democratic Transition: Lessons from the Arab World 10. Democratic Transition in Rivalry Contexts 11. The ‘Arab Spring’ and the Challenges of Security Sector Reform 12. Concluding Remarks: On Viruses, Phantom Actors and Other Colonial Ghosts
Theoretical Framework of Democratic Transition: Mechanisms of Democratization
Grani
Democratic transition from authoritarian rule has been an important focus of scholarly interest since 1970s. The democratic transition literature presented many concepts, theoretical arguments, methodological and analytical approaches to tackle with this phenomenon. This huge academic accumulation came in conjunction with what was called the third wave of democratization which started in the mid-seventies beginning from southern Europe, and extended during the decades of the eighties and nineties to include many countries around the globe. Democratic transition can be defined as a political process of establishing or enlarging the possibility of democratic participation and liberalization. This process reflects the redistribution of power between the state and the civil society. It is accompanied by the appearance of different centers of power and the introduction of the political debate. The article concentrates on the mechanisms which lead to the consensus between political actors...
Democracy: From One Crisis to Another
Democracy is in crisis. This crisis is the paradoxical outcome of its triumph over its erstwhile rivals. Having prevailed over the totalitarian projects of the first half of the 20 th century it has developed in such a way that it is now undermining its original goals of individual and collective autonomy. Modern liberal democracy – the outcome of an inversion of the values of tradition, hierarchy and political incorporation – is a mixed regime. It involves three different dimensions of social existence, political, legal, historical/economic, and organises power around these. A balance was achieved after the upheaval of World War II in the form of liberal democracy, on the basis of reforms which injected democratic political power into liberalism and controlled the new economic dynamics it had unleashed. This balance has now been lost. Political autonomy, which accompanied modern historicity and its orientation towards the future, has been overshadowed by economic activity and its pursuit of innovation. As a result, the very meaning of democracy has become impoverished. The term used to refer to the goal of self-government, it is now taken to be fully synonymous with personal freedom and the cause of human rights. The legal dimension having come to prevail over the political one, democratic societies see themselves as 'political market societies', societies that can only conceive of their existence with reference to a functional language borrowed from economics. This depoliticisation of democracy has facilitated the rise to dominance of a new form of oligarchy.