Democratic Equilibrium: the Supply and Demand of Democratic Change (original) (raw)
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How and when might democratisation be vulnerable to violent political instability
Term Paper, 2017
Democratisation in the “global south” have at times ended in – or been characterized by – violent political instability. At other times, democratisation have transpired in a peaceful manner. The various experiences of the recent Arab Spring, from Tunisia to Syria, underline the observation that: what starts of as calls for democracy might end in violent chaos as well as democratic progress. The observed variance generates a clear question: how and when might democratisation be vulnerable to violent political instability? In order to answer this question, I will review the literature on democratisation generated in the wake of the stagnation of the third wave of democracy. This literature is not primarily focused on the relationship between democratisation and violent political instability, but on the challenges and opportunities of democratisation. Nevertheless, various theories of democratisation emphasize different processes, dynamics, and actors. Inherent vulnerability might, or might not, be present within these processes, dynamics, and actors. My goal is not to test theory, but to generate hypothesis regarding the possible inherent vulnerability of these elements.
Is democracy losing its appeal across the world? How can Western powers support indigenous pro-democratic actors and pave the way for a political transition? Kathryn Stoner-Weiss and Michael McFaul, Thomas Carothers and Diane de Gramont, and Joshua Kurlantzick concur in the consequential role of external factors in democratization. Kurlantzick holds that ongoing democratic recession is caused, inter alia, by the middle classes’ disappointment in democracy. Nonetheless, Western countries should continue to use such instruments as shaming and selective incentives in order not to let authoritarians descend into more repressive rule. Kathryn Stoner, Michael McFaul, and other contributors to the volume on democratic transitions present an actor-centric theory of exogenous democratization, in which external actors empower indigenous forces that initiate political transitions. Carothers and de Gramont discuss the political role of aid assistance, arguing in favor of conditionality between aid and democratic change. These three books discuss democratization from an international perspective, but the foci of each work are different. Kurlantzick discusses the present state of democracy and its future prospects, Stoner and McFaul provide a theory of exogenous democratic transitions, and Carothers and de Gramont examine how aid assistance can induce democratization from the outside.
ON THE CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY - with changes.docx
Journalism and Mass Communication, Jan.-Feb. 2019, Vol. 9, No. 1, 33-52. , 2019
In the last three decades of the 20th century, important political changes occurred in all regions of the world, making the institutions of many existing political systems closer to the ideals of democracy. But as happened in other moments of history, those processes of democratization, even when successful, always occurred through advances and retreats. Thus, contemporary political practices, procedures, and institutions embody democratic ideals only partially. In many nations, in the present, the rule of law, civil, and political rights, and institutional mechanisms for citizens’ control of governments remain ineffective or underdeveloped. Thus, a double concern prevails among analysts: on the one hand, the regression to authoritarianism in some countries after the processes of political changes—Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Turkey being the paradigmatic examples; the emergence of semi-democracies, i.e., hybrid or illiberal regimes, which have provoked a new interest in the study of patterns of institutional design, the critical role of civil society, different political-cultural developments, authoritarian legacies in the context of the new democracies, competitive authoritarianism and new dictatorships. On the other hand, the acknowledgement of intrinsic limits of the historical development of the democratic regime even in the case of old democracies, i.e., the fact that political equality, active citizen participation, and effective control of abuse of power have never been fully realized in practice. This is the general context in which many analysts and part of the public opinion sustain that there is a crisis of democracy. The general diagnosis refers to the decreasing trust in political elites, political parties, parliaments, governments, and to the dissatisfaction with the regime among democrats; it refers also to the weaker and sometimes erratic performance of democratic institutions and particularly to the failure of the representative system. The picture is completed with the growing rates of partisan misalignment, electoral volatility, and declining civic participation. All this seems to indicate that democracy is inconceivable without crisis. This chapter discusses this scenario. The crisis of democracies is examined from a critical perspective, and the main objective is to understand the different dimensions of its nature and its consequences. Keywords: democratization, crisis, quality of democracy, semi-democracy, illiberal regime, authoritarianism, populism
The advance of democracy in Latin America over the past quarter century has contributed significantly to ensuring respect for fundamental political freedoms, civil liberties, and human rights. Democracies in Development highlights how an effective democracy is also essential for sustainable economic and social development. The book analyzes the effects of institutions on the functioning of democratic systems, identifies regional trends in political reform, assesses the value of reforms in contributing to enhanced democratic governance, and offers conclusions about the types of reforms that may hold promise for strengthening democracy. Appendices in the book’s accompanying CD-ROM outline the institutional makeup of the region’s democratic systems, examine voter turnout in presidential and legislative elections from 1978 to 2004, and present election results over the same period.