‘Countries will only democratise if there is a credible bargain between the
elites and the masses.’
Essay:
In political science, democratic transitions are explained according to different
theories that take into account distinct variables, as economic growth and
cultural changes. Strategic bargain theories, according to Acemoglu and
Robinson (YEAR), emphasise how authoritarian leaders, who want to protect
their position of privilege, are forced to establish democratic institutions in order
to appease a mass group of coordinated poorer citizens who are demanding
democratic representation, political equality and a redistribution of wealth. The
elites would like to avoid the revolution by making a trustworthy commitment to
pro-majority policies. However, promises of such policies within the existing
political system are often unreliable and citizens cannot just trust the promises
of the political elite, because it is in the elites’ interest to return to the earlier,
more unequal system. In order to make promises reliable, the elites need to
enshrine the reallocation of political power in favour of the majority through
democratic institutions.
SEPARATE PARAGRAPH ON THE ROLE OF INQUALITY:
but as long as the social structure remains largely unaffected, this means that
masses do not make too strong demands and elites do not cede their entire
wealth. Furthermore, the initial level of inequality, the probability of a revolution
and the cost of repression that the political elites experience are factors that will
determine whether and when the democratic transitions will be achieved.
Strategic bargain theories are based on the idea that inequality triggers the
desire for a more favourable redistribution of wealth; hence, they only
contemplate the economic variable in terms of allocation of resources in the
society, while other factors remain unexplored. For example, the cultural
approach states that civil culture, which represents a rise in the belief in the
rights of the individual and a questioning of authority, is the bedrock of
democracy. Secular-rational and self-expressing values are positively related to
democratic transitions, as Inglehardt and Welzel (YEAR) state. Actually, these
different theories are related, for example, one could say that a better
distribution of wealth leads to a more equal access to education and a cultural
change.
The democratic transition in Britain is explainable by the strategic bargain
theory. A decline in the economic outlook increased the threat of violence in
response to growing inequality. As a result, several agreements were made by
wealthy elites and poor citizens in order to prevent social revolution. In contrast,
the strategic bargain theory cannot be properly applied in Tunisia, where threats
of repression failed and the consequent bargain offered by the ruling elite was
seen as coming too late by the protesting masses and, therefore, it did not
avoid the revolution, which means that the transition was more violent and less
stable than would be expected under a strategic bargain model.
The theory provides consistent explanations about how democratic transitions
occur when the ruling elite and the poorer citizens interact and make
agreements regarding the distribution of wealth, and it can be applied to
particular cases. Nevertheless, it fails to considerer other important variables as
triggers of a democratic transition, such as... Therefore, it will be wise to
analyse a single transition according to different perspectives.
Grade 65% / 16