1Democracy and DemocratizationOutline:• Defining and measuring democracy• Huntington’s waves of democratization• Income and democracy• Democracy’s onward march• Democratic institutional arrangements• ConclusionsDefinition of Democracy• Formally, democracy is a political system based onfree and fair elections in a multi-party system• Auditing democracy• Substantive outcomes vs. procedural institutions• Scales of democracy2Types of Democracy1. Illiberal Democracy- Elections, but not free and fair- Regimes deprive citizens of basic rights and freedoms2. Formal (Procedural) Democracy- Free and fair elections, with a multi-party system anduniversal suffrage, but few other political rights exist3. Liberal Democracy- Has all the characteristics of formal democracy- Citizens have civil rights and freedoms that are protectedby rule of law4. Substantive Democracy- Citizens have equality of political influence andparticipation34Huntington’s 3 Waves ofDemocracy• 1st Long Wave (1828-1926): All major European statesswitch from monarchy to democracy=> Reversal: 1922-1942: dictatorial regimes in Europe• 2nd Short Wave (1943-1962): Decolonization (Africa,Asia)=> Reversal (1960s-70s): Military coups in Turkey,Greece, Latin America• 3rd Wave (1974- ): Latin America and Eastern Europe=> Will we experience a third reversal?5Huntington’s Waves: Causesand ShortcomingsCauses:1. Major change in international distribution of power afterWWII2. Parallel economic development3. Snowballing or diffusion4. Prevailing Zeitgeist during periods of three wavesShortcomings:• Huntington uses a narrow set of parameters to define democracy• He interprets regional variations in democratization as being theresult of “civilizational” differences6Democracy and Income• Modernization or Endogenous theory: Economic development bringsabout democracy• Exogenous theory: Economic development does NOT bring aboutdemocracy, but democracy is more stable in a country economicallydeveloped• Recent studies show that economic development both causesdemocracy (endogenous) and sustains it (exogenous)• Income inequality does not affect the rise of a democracy• At low levels of per capita income, democracies are less stable thanautocracies, but when income increases (threshold of $1,000 peryear), democracies become more stable than autocracies7Policy Implications• Democracy as discourse: as its chief promoter sinceWWII, American narratives about democracy anddemocratization are critical to understanding itsdiffusion• Until the 1970’s, economic development was thought tobe a prerequisite for democracy promotion• Today, facilitating free and competitive elections is themost important aspect of the US’ democracy promotion- policy is not dependent on level of economicdevelopment8Russia: Reversal of Democracy• Since 2000, formal democracy has eroded- no direct election of governors, electoral barraised for parties to enter parliament• State has consolidated control over media throughdirect control or through state-owned companies• Laws to combat “extremism” used to smotheropposition voices• More power concentrated in the executive• Kremlin publicly denigrates democracy promotionefforts, claiming they are a cover for Westerneconomic, political and military interestsExpanding Zones of Democracy:A Recurrent Scheme1. Elections are rigged2. Opposition party calls for non-violent streetdemonstrations3. US/Western democracies provide overt and covertsupport of oppositionExamples in the former Soviet Union:- Georgia (2003): Rose revolution- Ukraine (2004): Orange revolution- Kyrgyzstan (2006): Tulip revolution- Belarus (2006): Potato Revolution9Ukraine: Between Chaos and Cosmos2004 Presidential Election 2006 Parliamentary Elections10Poland: An Imperial Palimpsest11Institutional Arrangements• To remain stable, states may requirepolitical arrangements beyond freeand fair elections:• Consociationalism• Federalism• Party power-sharingConclusions• Democracy is a political regime which historically hasshown a cyclical trend• Democracy includes a number of variables that are oftennot captured in a single data set and occurs at manydifferent scales other than the state level• It is important to recognize the differences betweenprocedural and substantive definitions of democracy andthe policy implications of both• There is a positive correlation between income anddemocracy• States can require different institutional arrangements toremain stable and
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