Democratic transition

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
democratizing
(yellow).

A democratic transition describes a phase in a countries

democratisation, political changes moving in a democratic direction.[4] Democratization waves have been linked to sudden shifts in the distribution of power among the great powers, which created openings and incentives to introduce sweeping domestic reforms.[5][6] Although transitional regimes experience more civil unrest,[7][8] they may be considered stable in a transitional phase for decades at a time.[9][10][11] Since the end of the Cold War transitional regimes have become the most common form of government.[12][13] Scholarly analysis of the decorative nature of democratic institutions concludes that the opposite democratic backsliding (autocratization), a transition to authoritarianism is the most prevalent basis of modern hybrid regimes.[14][15][16]

Typology

Autocratization

Main article:
Autocratization
Further information: Democratic backsliding by country
democratizing (blue) substantially and significantly (2010–2020), according to V-Dem Institute. Countries in grey are substantially unchanged.[17]

Democratic backsliding

freedom of expression.[29][30] Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization
.

Proposed causes of democratic backsliding include

states of emergency that are either disproportionate to the severity of the crisis or remain in place after the situation has improved.[31]

While regime change through
liberal democracies was at an all-time high.[33][34] One quarter of the world's population lives under democratically backsliding hybrid regimes as of 2021.[35]

Democratisation

Main article: Democratization
Map showing democratization of countries after the Cold War

Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.[36][37]

Whether and to what extent democratization occurs can be influenced by 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.[38] How democratization occurs has also been used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war or whether its economy grows.[39]

The opposite process is known as democratic backsliding or autocratization.

Factors

Decolonization

Main article: Decolonization
Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas.[40] The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence movements in the colonies and the collapse of global colonial empires.[41][42] Other scholars extend the meaning to include economic, cultural and psychological aspects of the colonial experience.[43][44]
Except for a few absolute monarchies, most post-colonial states are either republics or constitutional monarchies. These new states had to devise constitutions, electoral systems, and other institutions of representative democracy.

Democratic globalization

Main article: Democratic globalization
Democratic globalization is a social movement towards an institutional system of global democracy.[45] One of its proponents is the British political thinker David Held. In the last decade, Held published a dozen books regarding the spread of democracy from territorially defined nation states to a system of global governance that encapsulates the entire world. For some, democratic mundialisation (from the French term mondialisation) is a variant of democratic globalisation stressing the need for the direct election of world leaders and members of global institutions by citizens worldwide; for others, it is just another name for democratic globalisation.[46]

Democracy promotion

Main article: Democracy promotion
less likely to go to war, are likely to be economically better off and socially more harmonious.[47] In democracy building, the process includes the building and strengthening of democracy, in particular the consolidation of democratic institutions, including courts of law, police forces, and constitutions.[48] Some critics have argued that the United States has used democracy promotion to justify military intervention abroad.[49][50]

Outcomes

Democratic consolidation

Main article: Democratic consolidation
Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures, in a way that it becomes unlikely to revert to authoritarianism without an external shock, and is regarded as the only available system of government within a country.[51][52] A country can be described as consolidated when the current democratic system becomes “the only game in town”,[53] meaning no one in the country is trying to act outside of the set institutions.[54] This is the case when no significant political group seriously attempts to overthrow the democratic regime, the democratic system is regarded as the most appropriate way to govern by the vast majority of the public, and all political actors are accustomed to the fact that conflicts are resolved through established political and constitutional rules.[55][56]

Stalled transition

Hybrid regime

Main article: Hybrid regime
A
petro-states.[74][64][75] Although these regimes experience civil unrest, they may be relatively stable and tenacious for decades at a time.[c] There has been a rise in hybrid regimes since the end of the Cold War.[76][77]

Measurement

Main article: Democracy indices
Global trend report Bertelsmann Transformation Index 2022[78]

The democracies indices differ in whether they are categorical, such as classifying countries into democracies,

autocracies,[79][80] or continuous values.[81] The qualitative nature of democracy indices enables data analytical approaches for studying causal
mechanisms of regime transformation processes.

Democracy indices differ in scope and weighting of different aspects of democracy, including the breadth of core democratic institutions, competitiveness and inclusiveness of polyarchy, freedom of expression, various aspects of governance, democratic norm transgressions, co-option of opposition, electoral system manipulation, electoral fraud, and popular support of anti-democratic alternatives.[82][83][84]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Other names include autocratization, democratic decline,[18] de-democratization,[19] democratic erosion,[20] democratic decay,[21] democratic recession,[22] democratic regression,[18] and democratic deconsolidation.[23]
  2. semi-democracy or deficient democracy or defective democracy or hybrid democracy.[58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65]
  3. ^ a b c "Some scholars argue that deficient democracies and deficient autocracies can be seen as examples of hybrid regimes, whereas others argue that hybrid regimes combine characteristics of both democratic and autocratic regimes."[59] Scholars also debate if these regimes are in transition or are inherently a stable political system.[66][67][68][69][70][71][72][73]

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Further reading

External links
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