INTL 190:
Democracy in the Developing
World
Spring 2012
THE STATE OF
DEMOCRACY: OVERVIEW
• Schedule and Assignments
• Synthesis: Diamond, Spirit of Democracy,
Introduction and Part I
• Collier and Levitsky, “Democracy with
Adjectives”
• Munck and Verkuilen, “Conceptualizing and
Measuring Democracy” <maybe>
“SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY”
• Purposeful action: “struggle, strategy,
ingenuity, vision, courage, conviction,
compromise, and choices by human actors…
politics in the best sense of the word.”
• “Increasingly, democratic values and
aspirations are becoming universal…”
• “a change of heart”
• Question: “can the whole world become
democratic?”
POLITICAL REGIME TYPES
• Electoral democracy = free and fair elections
• Liberal democracy = democratic elections +
“thick” dimensions (citizen rights)
• Illiberal democracy = elections without all
other attributes (citizen rights)
• Pseudemocracy ̴ electoral authoritarian
regimes
• Note: authoritarianism ≠ totalitarianism
QUERIES
• Is democracy a luxury? Proposition: “the
richer the country, the greater the chance that it
would sustain democracy”
• Is democracy a Western concept?
–
–
–
–
–
therefore not universal
“clash of civilizations” thesis
Islam the problem? [see p. 35]
“Asian values” thesis
Survey support for democracy [p. 33]
THE DEMOCRATIC BOOM
• “the greatest transformation in the way states
are governed in the history of the world” [p. 6]
• Waves (à la Huntington):
–
–
–
–
First 1828-1926, reversals 1922-42
Second 1943-62, reversals 1958-75
Third 1974-present? reversals 1999Key events: Philippines 1986, Eastern Europe
1989, North Africa 2011?
FEATURES OF THE
THIRD WAVE
•
•
•
•
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
snowballing
negotiated (“pacted”)
role of civil society
electoral process
global phenomenon
– Of 110 nondemocratic states in 1974, 63 (57%)
underwent democratic transition
– About 60% of all countries democratic
REVERSALS
• Pakistan (1999)
– deterioration in rule of law
– ethnic and religious polarization
– economic failure, corruption
• The curse of oil
– resources for repression
– corruption
– socioeconomic inequality
– escalation of internal conflict
– no taxes, no representation
– wealth an illusion
WHAT DRIVES DEMOCRACY?
• Internal factors
–
–
–
–
Authoritarian failures and divisions
Economic development + middle class
“psychic mobility” and democratic values
emergence of civil society
• External factors
–
–
–
–
Diffusion and demonstration effects
Leverage and linkage
Sanctions and conditionality
Democracy assistance
• Regional influence
– Organization of American States
– European Union (EU), Commonwealth of Nations
– African Union, Arab League
WHAT SUSTAINS
DEMOCRACY?
•
•
•
•
•
Political culture
Civil society
Management of diversity
Accountability and rule of law
“… the lesson of India’s remarkable experience is
that even modest but consistent economic
development, combined with a decent functioning
and gradual deepening of democratic institutions, can
sustain a free political system just about anywhere”
(p. 168).
THOUGHTS ON
CURRENT EVENTS
• Acceptance of authoritarian rule:
– Claims to legitimacy
– Economic (or other) performance
– Repression and fear
• Protest against misrule:
– Economic failure, international humiliation
– Corruption and inequality
– Exclusion of new elites
• Support for democracy? Or for an alternative
dictatorship?
ANALYTICAL TOOLS
Collier and Levitsky,
“Democracy with Adjectives”