What is Democratisation?
Democratisation is the process by which a political system becomes democratic. Despite the widespread assumption that democracy is a universal good, there is little agreement on what exactly constitutes democracy or on how a society can achieve it. One popular view is that a country can gradually become democratic, as in Great Britain’s slow transition over centuries from absolute monarchy to one of the world’s oldest democracies. However, this gradualist approach is not a requirement for democracy nor is it necessarily the best path to stability. Some democratisations appear much more revolutionary, such as the rapid rise of multi-party politics in South Korea after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Another school of thought asserts that a country cannot move from an authoritarian regime to a functioning democracy without first undergoing pro-democratic civil society changes and achieving a certain level of political and social maturity, so that the majority of citizens can grasp and accept democratic ideas and values as not threatening but complementary to their traditional referents for cultural identity and beliefs about what constitutes the “common good”. This is known as the transitional stage or procedural democracy, and it must be accomplished before a society can expect to move to substantive democracy. This explains why many attempts at democratic transition instigated from the outside are likely to fail, as has been the case with Afghanistan and Iraq, and why even some that have been successful often produce little more than different forms of procedural democracy.
The emergence of democracy is a complicated process, and there are many theories about the causes of its success or failure. One school of thought argues that the development of democracy is determined by the degree to which the economy is developed and the extent to which economic progress creates social pressures for political change. This argument is often referred to as the “democratic dividend” hypothesis. The development of democracy may also be linked to education, with more educated citizens being better able to understand and participate in political affairs, as well as more likely to hold values consistent with democratic principles.
Other schools of thought cite international structural forces as the main factor driving democratic transitions. This view is based on the observation that democracy tends to occur in waves worldwide, and that the expansion of democratic rights in some countries leads to the decline of autocratic regimes elsewhere. This theory is often criticized for understating the importance of mass protests and NGOs in pressuring authoritarian governments to liberalize and providing credibility to democratic opposition demands.
Democratisation is a complex process, and its successes are often overstated. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from studying both successful and failed examples of democratisation. This understanding is critical to gaining a better appreciation of the world’s political landscape and a deeper understanding of the complex forces that drive democracy to be either stable or fragile. This is why studying the democratisation of countries such as South Korea, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after the fall of the Soviet Union and South Africa after Apartheid offers insights into both the challenges and opportunities of democracy.
Democratisation is the process by which a political system becomes democratic. Despite the widespread assumption that democracy is a universal good, there is little agreement on what exactly constitutes democracy or on how a society can achieve it. One popular view is that a country can gradually become democratic, as in Great Britain’s slow transition over centuries from absolute monarchy to one of the world’s oldest democracies. However, this gradualist approach is not a requirement for democracy nor is it necessarily the best path to stability. Some democratisations appear much more revolutionary, such as the rapid rise of multi-party politics in South Korea after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Another school of thought asserts that a country cannot move from an authoritarian regime to a functioning democracy without first undergoing pro-democratic civil society changes and achieving a certain level of political and social maturity, so that the majority of citizens can grasp and accept democratic ideas and values as not threatening but complementary to their traditional referents for cultural identity and beliefs about what constitutes the “common good”. This is known as the transitional stage or procedural democracy, and it must be accomplished before a society can expect to move to substantive democracy. This explains why many attempts at democratic transition instigated from the outside are likely to fail, as has been the case with Afghanistan and Iraq, and why even some that have been successful often produce little more than different forms of procedural democracy. The emergence of democracy is a complicated process, and there are many theories about the causes of its success or failure. One school of thought argues that the development of democracy is determined by the degree to which the economy is developed and the extent to which economic progress creates social pressures for political change. This argument is often referred to as the “democratic dividend” hypothesis. The development of democracy may also be linked to education, with more educated citizens being better able to understand and participate in political affairs, as well as more likely to hold values consistent with democratic principles. Other schools of thought cite international structural forces as the main factor driving democratic transitions. This view is based on the observation that democracy tends to occur in waves worldwide, and that the expansion of democratic rights in some countries leads to the decline of autocratic regimes elsewhere. This theory is often criticized for understating the importance of mass protests and NGOs in pressuring authoritarian governments to liberalize and providing credibility to democratic opposition demands. Democratisation is a complex process, and its successes are often overstated. Nevertheless, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from studying both successful and failed examples of democratisation. This understanding is critical to gaining a better appreciation of the world’s political landscape and a deeper understanding of the complex forces that drive democracy to be either stable or fragile. This is why studying the democratisation of countries such as South Korea, the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia after the fall of the Soviet Union and South Africa after Apartheid offers insights into both the challenges and opportunities of democracy.