Showing papers in "Democratization in 2004"

Embedded and defective democracies

Abstract: In the literature on democratization the mainstream of theoretical and empirical consolidology uses the dichotomy autocracy versus democracy. Democracy is generally conceived of as ‘electoral democ...

International actors and democracy promotion in central and eastern Europe: the integration model and its limits

Abstract: This article focuses on the key influence of international organizations, and specifically the European Union, in the process of democratization in central and eastern European (CEE) states. It argues that the process of accession to the EU by these post-communist states undergoing regime change, including the pressure to conform to the EU's pre-membership conditions, has led to the emergence of a unique model of democracy promotion through integration. This model appears to be more successful in fostering democracy than the efforts of other international organizations such as the Council of Europe, the OSCE, NATO or regional integration bodies in other parts of the world. To explain the EU's success the article investigates the particular combination of hard conditionality and soft measures such as twinning and of top-down and bottom-up approaches that it has employed to strengthen democratic institutions in CEE. Since membership of the EU is the lynchpin of this approach, it has good chances of success ...

What is a 'Good' Democracy?

Abstract: This article introduces three different notions of quality grounded in procedure, content and result. Those three notions are at the core of three different notions of democratic quality. Each of them has different implications for empirical research. Starting from these premises, the article proposes some theoretical arguments fundamental to the analysis of democratic quality and good democracy. In the first section definitions of democracy and quality are suggested. The subsequent three sections analyse the main emphasized dimensions, such as the rule of law, accountability, responsiveness, freedom and equality. Such an analysis calls for indicators, certain measures that reveal how and to what degree each dimension is present in various models of good democracy, the numerous and related problems associated with empirical study, and the essential conditions for its existence. The penultimate section indicates models of good democracy and highlights the related and much more common models of low quality democracies. The concluding remarks briefly mention the main directions of future research on the topic.

Party research: Western European bias and the ‘African labyrinth’

Abstract: For a long time Africa's political parties have been neglected in political science research, although they have mushroomed during the last decade and are being seen as crucial for the democratic development of the continent. Part of the neglect was due to the very specific western European bias of political science party research, while Africanists claimed the uniqueness of the subject. Despite this bias, the article argues that the framework of established party research can be applied to African parties as well – provided that some modifications are considered. These necessary modifications are explained for four ‘fields’, namely the functionalist approach, the cleavage model, the inclusion of informal politics, and finally whether a distinctively ‘African’ or a universal party typology approach should be applied.

From transition to defective democracy: mapping Asian democratization

Abstract: This article undertakes a systematic inquiry of democratic development in Asia. It shows two main trends of democratization in south, south-east and north-east Asia. First, in most of the democracies the institutionalization of political rights exists side by side with stagnation or decline of the rule of law and civil liberties. Second, the quality of democracy in the different countries is growing further apart. While new democracies in north-east Asia are on the track to democratic consolidation, democracy in south Asia is on the edge or has already fallen victim to authoritarian renewal. In south-east Asia, democratic consolidation is stagnating. The article also provides for a systematic analysis of why and how defective democracies originate. It argues that not a single primary cause but a set of interconnected variables influences the track of democratic development. While ‘Asian values’, the type of colonial rule and ethnic heterogeneity give only weak support for democracy in Asia, socio-economic...

Liberalization, Transition and Consolidation: Measuring the Components of Democratization

Abstract: This article measures the process of democratization by subdividing it into three components: the liberalization of autocracy, the mode of transition and the consolidation of democracy. The 30 or s...

Judicialization of politics or politicization of the judiciary? Recent trends in Latin America

Abstract: This article examines the judicialization of politics in Latin America with particular reference to Mexico and Argentina. It surveys several inter-connected processes with regard to the democratic aspiration of building the rule of law and enhancing citizenship. More than ever before regime legitimacy is linked to the credibility and success of rule of law construction. At the same time, judicial institutions and legal processes have acquired an unprecedented public and political centrality, as judges are called upon to resolve political disputes and engage in the judicial and legal review of governmental processes. Moreover civil society in varying degrees is increasingly resorting to legal mechanisms as one means of reclaiming and advancing citizenship rights. However, this process of judicialization of politics in young democracies does not necessarily imply improvement in regard to the rule of law. And a failure to live up to expectations concerning the rule of law is placing an additional burden on t...

Post-conflict elections and the process of demilitarizing politics: the role of electoral administration

Abstract: Post-conflict elections are called upon to advance the distinct processes of both war termination and democratization. This article examines the patterns in seven cases where elections served as the final step to implement a peace agreement following a period of civil war. Such elections are shaped in part by the legacy of fear and insecurity that persists in the immediate aftermath of a protracted internal conflict. Comparative analysis suggests that interim regimes in general, and electoral administration in particular, based on joint problem solving and consultation may ‘demilitarize politics’ and help transform the institutions of war into institutions capable of sustaining peace and democratization. In Mozambique, El Salvador and, to an extent, Cambodia, processes to demilitarize politics prior to elections created a context that allowed the elections to advance both peace and democratization. In the other cases, politics remained highly militarized at the time of the vote, leading either to renewed ...

Towards a universal framework for democracy assessment

Abstract: Assessing the state or quality of a country's democracy has become an increasingly widespread undertaking over the past ten years, whether to construct league tables of democratic attainment, to explore correlations between democracy and economic condition or performance, or to identify likely recipients and projects for international aid. This article reports on a civil society-based programme and framework for democracy assessment in which the author has been involved, whose purpose is to contribute to public debate about a country's democracy, to monitor its progress over time, and to identify pressing areas for reform. Distinctive features of the methodology are the derivation of assessment criteria from clearly articulated democratic values, its relevance to new and established democracies alike, and the comprehensiveness of the assessment framework, covering citizen rights and the rule of law, institutions of representative and accountable government, civil society and participation, and internation...

Political culture in Turkey: Connections among attitudes toward democracy, the military and Islam

Abstract: Against the background of Turkey's continuing but unconsolidated democratic transition, this article examines the nature and determinants of attitudes toward democracy held by ordinary Turkish citizens. Using data from the World Values Survey conducted in Turkey in 1997, it seeks to contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with the relationship between political culture and democratization. Although this relationship has not been fully explicated, the authors share the view of those scholars who believe that the existence of democratic attitudes and values among a country's population is no less important than are democratic institutions and procedures for advancing and eventually consolidating a democratic transition. Accordingly, the study seeks to shed light on the following interrelated questions: To what extent does the Turkish population hold attitudes supportive of democracy? What are the most important determinants of popular support for democracy? What factors account for any observed...

Does God matter, and if so whose God? religion and democratization

Abstract: The question of whether some religions are more ‘suitable’ for democracy than others has excited considerable debate in recent years. This survey reviews the debate and, focusing largely on Christianity and Islam, suggests that whilst no religious tradition is inherently incompatible with democratic governance, at particular points in time the dominant voices and practices in specific religious traditions may be more or less supportive of democratic development. Less clear, given the centrality of non-religious factors to most transitions, is whether this matters very much.

Faltering democratic consolidation in South Korea: democracy at the end of the ‘three Kims’ era

Abstract: This article is a case study of South Korean democratic consolidation in the ‘three Kims’ era that ended in 2002. The article evaluates the achievements and failures with regard to democratic consolidation. In a negative sense the ‘three Kims’ made great progress toward consolidation, such as reinstituting a firm civilian control over the military, institutionalizing electoral competitions and a peaceful transfer of government. However, with regard to the more positive terms of democratic consolidation, the record is a dismal failure. The ‘three Kims’ handed over some unfavourable legacies, including divisive regionalism, an underdeveloped party system, an imperial but weak and ineffective presidency and political corruption. Korean democracy at the end of the ‘three Kims’ era was at best faltering on the verge of consolidation. Thus although Korea has been classified as a liberal democracy, by Freedom House, it retained many of the elements of ‘defective democracy’

Elections and political change in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract: This article examines attempts to use electoral politics to promote substantive political change in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1990 elections have been a key part of virtually all negotiated agreements to end civil wars. The utility of democracy for building peace is often asserted but rarely backed with long-term commitment and resources on the ground. Bosnia since 1996 is a rare exception. There, international actors sought not only to establish a democratic political system but to use electoral democracy as a tool with which to transform the nature of politics in Bosnia in short order. This article focuses on efforts to shape the development of political parties and the party system, assesses the degree to which it has succeeded and examines the broader implications of Bosnia's experience for other state-building efforts of its kind.

Did Protestantism Create Democracy

Abstract: This essay has a number of purposes. It assesses the contribution of the reformed strand of Christianity to the rise of liberal democracy. Insofar as it is persuasive, it illustrates the possibility of treating religion as a cause of political phenomena. And as far as space constraints allow, it draws attention to some complexities of causation that are often overlooked in the rather ritualistic arguments over the role of religion in politics. It is common for contemporary scholars to suppose religions so flexible, malleable and variegated as to be capable of producing and justifying any form of social organization, any social action and any set of social mores. Fred Halliday quotes favourably a scholar saying of Islam that it is so broad that

Buddhism, democracy and identity in Thailand

Abstract: Buddhism in Thailand has been characterized as a ‘revolutionary’ force, since rationalist Buddhist teachings offer considerable support for progressive and democratic political ideas. The reality, however, is that Thai Buddhism has been captured by the state, and its latent radicalism neutralized. The symbiotic relationship between the state and sangha has effectively limited Buddhism to the role of legitimating state power, and the universalistic teachings of Buddhism have been subordinated to nationalist ideology. While there is some interest in progressive ideas, overall numbers of monks are falling, and commercialized folk Buddhism has gained the upper hand. Monastic sexual and financial misdeeds are widespread. Thai Buddhism is also highly intolerant of those who deviate from mainstream teachings, making a mockery of ideas of freedom of religion. The Thai state strongly supports a conservative, orthodox and authoritarian mode of Buddhism. Insofar as Thailand has experienced processes of democratic transition and consolidation in recent decades, it has been in spite of the role of Buddhism.

Predatory Versus Developmental Rule in Africa

Abstract: Political economy predicts that national leaders opt for economic development when institutions encourage them to extend their time horizons. By contrast, leaders turn predatory if they feel at risk. Leaders are most able to bear risk right upon taking office, but this can be offset by a perception of high volatility in office holding or by concern about catastrophic losses. Political institutions can therefore discourage predation by fostering recurrent, predictable replacement of leaders without harsh payback for ex-leaders who acted developmentally. Cataloguing all national leadership transitions in Africa since 1960, the article demonstrates that electoral cycles, term limits and the prospect of judgement before international tribunals have lately led to declines in the volatility of top office holding and in the risk of catastrophic loss to the occupants. These new institutions have yet to establish full credibility, but they show promise of altering African leaders' risk assessments to encourage mor...

Introduction: democratization in the early twenty-first century

Abstract: Hardly any other subject in the last quarter of the twentieth century has influenced the research agenda of political science more than the transformation of authoritarian and ‘totalitarian’ political regimes into pluralist democracies. However, to the same extent that the third wave of democratization unfolded, beginning in 1974, which initially encompassed southern Europe and Latin America and then eventually included eastern Europe, Asia and Africa as well, the main focus of democratization studies shifted accordingly. While the ‘transitologists’ of the 1970s and 1980s investigated the conditions and modes of transition from dictatorship to democracy, the ‘consolidologists’ of the 1990s concentrated on inquiring into causes, conditions and models of the consolidation of young democracies. Most recently, the questions of whether democracy is working, how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ a democracy is, and of the conceptual issue of diminished sub-types of democracy (illiberal democracies, defective democracies and so on) have begun to become the new predominant trend in democracy theory and democratization studies. One must admit that a glance back at three decades of the ‘third wave’ indicates that political alternatives to democracy have since lost much of their appeal ‐ not only from an ideological point of view; their empirical relevance seems much diminished. The data offered by quantitative measurement of democracy leave no room for doubt about this. The political map of the world is, more than ever, marked by the presence of democracy. 1 However, some, if not many, new democracies (and some old ones) have very little to offer outside of elections, which liberal theorists of democracy would associate with the notion of a ‘liberal democracy’, a ‘good democracy’, or a ‘quality democracy’. As Thomas Carothers recently stated:

Conclusion: Good and Defective Democracies

Abstract: ‘Transitology’ and ‘consolidology’ have only rarely emphasized the importance of defining democracy in a normatively and theoretically sophisticated manner. Almost without discussion they accepted the parsimonious definition and elegant but simple concepts of Schumpeter, Dahl and Przeworski. 1 They reduced democracy to the question of free and general electoral competition, vertical accountability and the fact that the most powerful political and social actors played the political game according to democratically institutionalized rules. At least implicitly, democracy was conceived as an elitist electoral democracy. Neither the structural question of prerequisites for democracy 2 nor the conditions for sustainable legitimacy 3 played and could play a relevant role within this minimalist concept of the sustainability of democracy. But not only the external ‘embedding’ of democracy, but also the ‘internal’ embeddedness of the democratic electoral regime was neglected. Rule of law, civil rights and horizontal accountability were excluded from the concept of democracy. Guillermo O’Donnell (1993) 4 was the first to criticize that conceptual flaw of the mainstream of transitology and consolidology. Thirty years after the beginning of the third wave of democratization empirical evidence revealed the theoretical shortcomings of the minimalist ‘electoralists’. It became evident that it is misleading to subsume Denmark, Sweden or France under the same type of regime – an electoral democracy – as Russia, Thailand or Brazil. Political science ran the risk of even falling behind the analytical capacity of daily newspapers in differentiating between different types of democracy. It became clear that the majority of new democracies could not be labelled ‘liberal democracies’. General, competitive and free elections turned out to be insufficient in guaranteeing the rule of law, civil rights and horizontal accountability. Between elections many of the electoral democracies were not government by, of or for the people. It became obvious, again, that democratic elections need the support of complementary partial regimes, such as the rule of law, horizontal accountability and an open public sphere in order to become ‘meaningful’ elections. Democratic theory has once again met up with research on democratization. Since the mid-1990s studies

Weber in Latin America: is protestant growth enabling the consolidation of democratic capitalism?

Abstract: Since the 1930s, a number of countries in Latin America have experienced rapid growth in the expansion of evangelical Protestantism. Has this religious change produced concomitant changes in the political landscape? Some scholars have seen the possibility of a Weberian ‘Protestant ethic’ emerging, making the region more amenable to democratic capitalism. Others have argued that the ‘otherworldly’ nature of these new (predominantly Pentecostal) evangelicals lends itself to a more apolitical outlook and a deference to authoritarian rule. Using survey data from four countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico – this study concludes that denominational affiliation has little effect on political attitudes. The more critical factor determining political attitudes relates to the level of church attendance, which enhances civic engagement and trust in government.

Evangelical protestantism and democratization in contemporary Latin America and Asia

Abstract: This article examines the new mass Protestantism of Latin America and Asia, which is largely a pentecostalized evangelicalism. Looking at case-studies from Asia (South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, India and China) and from Latin America (Brazil, Guatemala, Peru and Nicaragua), the article stresses the importance of locating evangelical politics within the national religious and political fields. Evangelicalism is highly fragmented and its political effects cannot be read off from its religious doctrines. Fragmentation means that its direct political impact is always smaller than might be hoped or feared and therefore no evangelical neo-Christendom potentially dangerous to democracy is feasible. In addition, it does not seem that Third-World evangelicalism will line up with the First-World Christian right on many issues. But the results for democracy are paradoxical. Totalitarian regimes or movements are firmly resisted, as are non-Christian religious nationalisms, but authoritarian regimes which do not impinge on evangelical religion may not always be. The evangelical world is too fissured and independent to provide a firm basis for nation-wide movements advocating major political change. It is thus less ‘use’ during democratic transitions than during periods of democratic consolidation.

Religion and democratization in Africa

Abstract: Two main issues form the focus of attention in this study. The first is the relationship of senior religious figures to the state in Africa and the role of the former in the region's democratization in the 1990s. The second is the political importance of ‘popular’ religions in Africa. The overall aim is to examine the relationship of religion and politics in Africa in the context of democratization, to: (1) establish the nature of the links between senior religious figures and state elites in Africa, (2) make some preliminary observations about the political nature of popular religions in the region, and (3) comment on the overall impact of religious actors on Africa's democratization.

Autocracy and democracy in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

Abstract: This article discusses and applies the concept of ‘embedded democracy’ to the Community of Independent States (CIS), with a focus on Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. The cases are rather similar: the electoral regime, the public arena, the regime of civic freedoms and the vertical power structure are defective in all three countries. Because of notable defects in the electoral regime, Belarus is an autocratic regime with strong parallels to the defective democracies in Russia and Ukraine. The communist legacy is partially responsible for the similarity of the cases. Other variables identified for the development of democratic defects are the conflicting regime change, the economic crisis, the unequal distribution of power resources, the ‘dark side’ of civil society, the identity crisis in nation-building and societal fragmentation. Altogether the model of ‘embedded democracy’ is very useful for analysing post-Soviet regimes. However, some recent developments in the region indicate that countries like Russia a...

Democracy promotion: the relationship of political parties and civil society

Abstract: Organizations involved in the growing field of democracy promotion need to find effective ways to aid both political parties and civil organizations and, where necessary, to foster close collaboration between them. But they also must respect their autonomy and help them realize their own democratic objectives. It is important to recognize the differences between the two sectors: civil society should not be subordinate to parties, and it would be a mistake to wrap the party sector into an undifferentiated concept of civil society. Strategies to assist democracy should, then, distinguish between four main political contexts: authoritarian; emerging democracy; post-dictatorial situations where government is not committed to democracy; and war-torn or post-conflict countries.

Popular attitudes toward the South African electoral system

Abstract: This article is based on a survey of popular attitudes towards the pure list system that is South Africa's proportional representation electoral system. While the reported findings are broadly positive there are some notable exceptions, located disproportionately among racial minorities and also among sizable numbers of black respondents. Pure proportional representation is unlikely to produce the values that the respondents say they most want from a voting system. The significance of the survey's findings is analysed and reasons are advanced for making changes to the electoral system. The government has opted to retain the status quo for the time being but in the longer term this could be negative for South Africa's democracy

Islam, Muslim polities and democracy

Abstract: Since 11 September 2001 (‘9/11’) the international spotlight has been more firmly than ever on the Muslim world, and its Middle East heartland in particular. All aspects of life in Muslim societies – history, educational system, attitudes towards the West, gender relations, cultural underpinnings, political and economic systems, demography, foreign relations – have been pored over by policy commentators and analysts in attempts to unearth the root causes of Islamist militancy against the West. Using the tools of political economy and social movement theories this analysis will debate the complex set of issues underlining many aspects of the ‘Islam and democracy’ debate, which today is very much about the relationship between Islam and governance. Indeed, as the debate itself since ‘9/11’ has been increasingly shaped by priorities of western actors, whose traditional interests in the Muslim Middle East are now being driven by concerns about international stability, Muslims have tended to adopt an even more...

The Islamist discourse of the FIS and the democratic experiment in Algeria

Abstract: The Algerian civil war of the 1990s has been framed as an example of the dangers involved in allowing Islamist parties and movements to participate in the democratic process in the Middle East and North Africa. However, it is misguided to simply blame Islamism for the failure of the Algerian democratization process, or to define Islamist politics as an aberrant political phenomenon needing eradication. This study investigates both the historical and ideological connections between Islamism and the established norms and motifs of political imagination in Algeria. It is argued that the political discourse of the dominant Islamist party during democratization, the Front Islamique du Salut, was ambiguous in its attitude to democracy, but it is also shown that its approach to the political was in fact anchored in established regime strategies for using postcolonial identity as a legitimizing tool.

The building of the democratic tradition in South Africa's trade unions after 1973

Abstract: This article traces the emergence of the democratic union tradition in the trade union movement that emerged in the wake of the 1973 strikes in South Africa. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that attributes the emergence of this tradition solely to a generation of young white union activists and labour-supporting intellectuals, the article argues that this tradition owes its origins to a multiplicity of sources. The article emphasises the social character of trade unions and how they bear the imprint of the historical and cultural heritage and social experiences of their members and leading activists. Thus the article challenges the notion that a social group enters into new associational forms as a tabula rasa. Instead, it claims that the building of the democratic union tradition in South Africa is not just an outcome of intellectual influences but significantly was shaped by the workers' ‘lived experiences’.

Economic development and democracy revisited: Why dependency theory is not yet dead

Abstract: It is generally accepted that there is a relationship between economic development and democracy which can be demonstrated by quantitative empirical evidence. The difficulties of validating the empirical claims derive not so much from the measures of economic development as from the measures of democracy itself. Our inquiry deepens the investigation of the relationship by 'unpacking' the dependent variable into separate measures of eight core values of liberal democratic government for 40 countries over the period 1970-1998. Our model assumes that the quality of liberal democratic government is not one-dimensional but can be measured across this range of values, so creating 'performance profiles' and demonstrating the likely trade-offs across distinct democratic values. The results of the analysis confirm that economic development has positive effects on democratic performance, but these effects vary across diverse aspects of performance and also across regions.

Democracy and Hindu nationalism

Abstract: This study explores the relationships between Hindu nationalism, democracy and processes of expanding democratization in India. It considers important incommensurabilities in the way the Indian state, secularism, nationalism and democracy have been characterized. These provide insight into objective conditions for the rise of Hindu nationalism. The fears among secular, liberal and democratic sensibilities regarding Hindu nationalist authoritarian governance, as well as possible objective constraints on Hindutva ambitions, are explored. Hindu nationalism has attempted to transform entirely the meanings of liberalism, secularism and democracy. The article therefore considers whether unfettered Hindu nationalist governance and secular liberal democracy are in principle compatible.

Political actors, preferences and election rule re-design in Russia and Ukraine

Abstract: Institutional designers, international organizations and post-Soviet political actors have directed considerable attention to the design and conduct of elections in postcommunist states. This article explores the nature of electoral system re-design by investigating the motives and interactions of legislators, parties and presidents. Following the veto players literature, the analysis focuses on the determinants of policy stability and change. The process of institutional re-design is evaluated in two cases: the successful introduction of the Law on Political Parties in Russia and unsuccessful attempts at major election reform in Ukraine. The article shows that the outcomes of policy reform processes in these 'superpresidential' systems were not solely determined by presidential preferences. Rather, to fully understand election system re-design, it is critical to evaluate the preferences of all relevant veto players.