Democratization (British English: Democratisation) is the transition from an authoritarian or a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system. British English (BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere in the Anglophone world. ... Forms of government Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article applies to political and organizational ideologies. ... The term semi-authoritarian is used to refer to a state or regime that shares both democratic and authoritarian features. ... Democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies, ultimately, with the citizenry. ...

Factors affecting democratization

Number of nations 1800-2003 scoring 8 or higher on Polity IV scale, a measure of democracy.

This graph shows the number of nations in the different categories given above for the period for which there are surveys, 1972-2005

There is considerable debate about the factors which affect or ultimately limit democratization. A great many things, including economics, culture, and history, have been cited as impacting on the process. Some of the more frequently mentioned factors are: Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (949x561, 26 KB) Summary Data source: The Polity IV project. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (949x561, 26 KB) Summary Data source: The Polity IV project. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (827x428, 23 KB) Summary Created using data from Freedom Houses annual survey Freedom in the World. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (827x428, 23 KB) Summary Created using data from Freedom Houses annual survey Freedom in the World. ... Year 1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• Wealth. A higher GDP/capita correlates with democracy. There is also the general observation that democracy was very rare before the industrial revolution and that most stable democracies are wealthy. There is debate about whether democracy is a consequence of this wealth, a cause of it, or completely unrelated to it. Some campaigners for democracy believe that as economic development progresses, democratization will become inevitable. Even if there are free elections in poor nations, a poorly educated and illiterate population may elect populist politicians who soon abandon democracy and become dictators.
• The resource curse theory suggests that states whose sole source of wealth derives from abundant natural resources, such as oil, often fail to democratize since such wealth does not change the political-economic structure.
• Capitalism. Some claim that democracy and capitalism are intrinsically linked. This belief generally centers on the idea that democracy and capitalism are simply two different aspects of freedom. A widespread capitalist market culture may encourage norms such as individualism, negotiations, compromise, respect for the law, and equality before the law. These are seen as supportive for democratization. By contrast, many Marxists would claim that capitalism is inherently undemocratic, and that true democracy can only be achieved if the economy is controlled by the people as a whole rather than by private individuals.
• A large middle class. According to some, the existence of a substantial body of citizens who are of intermediate wealth can exert a stabilizing influence, allowing democracy to flourish. This is usually explained by saying that while the upper classes may want political power to preserve their position, and the lower classes may want it to lift themselves up, the middle class simply has less use for power, and is therefore unlikely to pursue non-democratic means of achieving it.
• Civil society. A healthy civil society (NGOs, unions, academia, human rights organizations) are considered by some theorists to be important for democratization, as they give people a unity and a common purpose, and a social network through which to organize and challenge the power of the state hierarchy.
• Homogeneous population. Some believe that a country which is deeply divided, whether by ethnic group, religion, or language, cannot establish a working democracy. The basis of this theory is that the different components of the country will be more interested in advancing their own position than in sharing power with each other. India is one prominent example of a nation being democratic despite this.
• Culture. It is claimed by some that certain cultures are simply more conductive to democratic values than others. This view is likely to be ethnocentric. Typically, it is Western culture which is cited as "best suited" to democracy, with other cultures portrayed as containing values which make democracy difficult or undesirable. This argument is sometimes used by undemocratic regimes to justify their failure to implement democratic reforms. Today, however, there are many non-Western democracies. Examples include India, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Namibia, Botswana, Taiwan, and South Korea.
• Previous experience with democracy. According to some theorists, the presence or absence of democracy in a country's past can have a significant effect on its later dealings with democracy. Some argue, for example, that it is very difficult (or even impossible) for democracy to be implemented immediately in a country that has no prior experience with it. Instead, they say, democracy must evolve gradually. Others, however, say that past experiences with democracy can actually be bad for democratization — a country, such as Pakistan, in which democracy has previously failed may be less willing or able to go down the same path again.
• Foreign intervention. Some believe that foreign involvement in a democratization is a crucial factor in its success or failure. For some, foreign involvement is advantageous for democracy—these people believe that democracy should be actively promoted and fostered by those countries which have already established it, and that democracy may not otherwise take hold. Others, however, take the opposite stance, and say that democratization must come "from the bottom up", and that attempts to impose democracy from the outside are often doomed to failure. The most extreme form is military intervention to create democracy, with advocates pointing to the creation of stable democracies in Japan and Germany after WWII, while critics point out, for example, the failures of colonialism and decolonization to create stable democracies in most developing nations, where dictators often quickly took power after a brief democratic period following independence.

Map of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita. ... Populism is a political ideology or rhetorical style that holds that the common person is oppressed by the elite in society, which exists only to serve its own interests, and therefore, the instruments of the State need to be grasped from this self-serving elite and instead used for the... The resource curse or paradox of plenty refers to the paradox that countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth than countries without these natural resources. ... Synthetic motor oil An oil is any substance that is in a viscous liquid state (oily) at ambient temperatures or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic (immiscible with water, literally water fearing) and lipophilic (miscible with other oils, literally fat loving). This general definition includes compound classes with otherwise unrelated... Marxism is both the theory and the political practice (that is, the praxis) derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Civil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state (regardless of that states political system) and commercial institutions. ... A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an organization which is not a part of a government. ... A trade union or labor union is an organization of individuals associated through employment, or labour. ... Academia is a collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes. ... An organization is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. ... For other uses, see State (disambiguation). ... A hierarchy (in Greek: , derived from — hieros, sacred, and — arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ... Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of ones own culture. ... For this articles equivalent regarding the East, see Eastern culture. ... It has been suggested that Benign colonialism be merged into this article or section. ... Colonialism in 1945 Decolonization refers to the achievement of independence by the various Western colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa following World War II. This conforms with an intellectual movement known as Post-Colonialism. ...

Other works related to democratization

A considerable amount of empirical research has been conducted on democratization, with scholars looking for patterns in the establishment of democracies around the world. The results have been varied, with different researchers coming to different conclusions. The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... Consent of the governed is a political theory that says a governments legitimacy and moral right to use state power is, or ought to be, derived from the people or society over which that power is exercised. ... Information on politics by country is available for every country, including both de jure and de facto independent states, inhabited dependent territories, as well as areas of special sovereignty. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political economy was the original term for the study of production, the acts of buying and selling, and their relationships to laws, customs and government. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political history is the narrative and analysis of political events, ideas, movements, and leaders. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political philosophy is the study of fundamental questions about the state, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why (or even if) they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political Science is the field concerning the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behaviour. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      International relations (IR), a branch of political science, is the study of foreign affairs and global issues among states within the international system, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and multinational corporations (MNCs). ... Main International Relations Theories and derivates Realism & Neorealism Idealism, Liberalism & Neoliberalism Marxism & Dependency theory Functionalism & Neofunctionalism Critical theory & Constructivism International relations theory attempts to provide a conceptual model upon which international relations can be analyzed. ... This is a list of notable political scientists. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Public administration can be broadly described as the study and implementation of policy. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      This article is about the sociological concept. ... Street-level bureaucracy is a term used to refer to a public agency employee who actually performs the actions that implement laws. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Separation of powers, a term faget from bob French political Enlightenment thinker Baron de Montesquieu[1][2], is a model for the governance of democratic states. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      In law, the judiciary or judicial is the system of courts which administer justice in the name of the sovereign or state, a mechanism for the resolution of disputes. ... A legislature is a type of representative deliberative assembly with the power to adopt laws. ... “Sovereign” redirects here. ... The psychodynamics of decision-making form a basis to understand institutional functioning. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. ... This article is about the political process. ... Voting is a method of decision making wherein a group such as a meeting or an electorate attempts to gauge its opinion—usually as a final step following discussions or debates. ... The Politics series Politics Portal This box:      Political federalism is a political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin: foedus, covenant) with a governing representative head. ... A form of government (also referred to as a system of government or a political system) is a system composed of various people, institutions and their relations in regard to the governance of a state. ... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Political campaign Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A political campaign is an organized effort to influence the decision making process within a group. ... Political parties Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      A political party is a political organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ...

In The Civic Culture and The Civic Culture Revisited, Gabriel A. Almond and Sidney Verba (editors) conducted a comprehensive study of civic cultures. The main findings is that a certain civic culture is necessary for the survival of democracy. This study truly challenged the common thought that cultures can preserve their uniqueness and practices and still remain democratic. Gabriel Almond was a prolific political scientist who was widely considered to the one of the most important political scientists of the 20th centure. ... Sidney Verba is a political scientist who specializes in American and comparative politics. ...

Francis Fukuyama wrote another classic in democratization studies entitled The End of History and the Last Man which spoke of the rise of liberal democracy as the final form of human government. Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama (b. ... The End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay The End of History?, published in the international affairs journal The National Interest. ... Liberal democracy is a form of government. ...

Samuel P. Huntington wrote The Third Wave, partly as response to Fukuyama, defining a global democratization trend in the world post WWII. Huntington defined three waves of democratization that have taken place in history, with the latest wave marking its period through the present. It is considered by the Journal of Democracy, a periodical journal, as one of the most empirical approaches to democratization. Samuel Huntington also examined the cultural aspect in international interactions in his book the Clash of civilizations. He identified six civilizations of the world and elaborated the concept of a cultural clash between the "East" and the "West" marked by democratic and freedom values of the West. This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Cover of The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that peoples cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. ...

One influential survey in democratization is that of Freedom House, which arose during the Cold War. The Freedom House, today an institution and a think tank, stands as one of the most comprehensive "freedom measures" nationally and internationally and by extension a measure of democratization. Freedom House categorizes all countries of the world according to a seven point value system with over 200 questions on the survey and multiple survey representatives in various parts of every nation. The total raw points of every country places the country in one of three categories: Free, Partly Free, or not Free. Freedom House is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. and with field offices in about a dozen countries. ...

One study simultaneously examining the relationship between capitalism (measured with one Index of Economic Freedom), economic development (measured with GDP/capita), and political freedom (measured with the Freedom House index) found that high economic freedom increases GDP/capita and a high GDP/capita increases economic freedom. A high GDP/capita also increases political freedom but political freedom did not increase GDP/capita. There was no direct relationship either way between economic freedom and political freedom if keeping GDP/capita constant.^[1] Map of Economic Freedom released by the Heritage Foundation. ...

Other research suggest that economic development itself does not increase the chance for democracy. But if a nation becomes democratic, then nations with a higher economic development are more likely to remain democratic. Poor and democratic nations have a high chances of returning to dictatorship if they experience a period of declining growth.[2]

The probability for a civil war is increased by political change, regardless whether toward greater democracy or greater autocracy. Intermediate regimes continue to be the most prone to civil war, regardless of the time since the political change. In the long run, since intermediate regimes are less stable than autocracies, which in turn are less stable than democracies, durable democracy is the most probable end-point of the process of democratization.[3]

Democratization in other contexts

Although democratization is most often thought of in the context of national or regional politics, the term can also be applied to:

International bodies

• International bodies (e.g the United Nations) where there is an ongoing call for reform and altered voting structures and voting systems.

The foundation of the U.N. The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate co-operation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. ... A voting system is a means of choosing between a number of options, based on the input of a number of voters. ...

Corporations

It can also be applied in corporations where the traditional power structure was top-down direction and the boss-knows-best (even a "Pointy-Haired Boss"); This is quite different from consultation, empowerment (of lower levels) and a diffusion of decision making (power) throughout the firm, as advocated by workplace democracy movements. For other uses, see Corporation (disambiguation). ... The Pointy-Haired Boss (often abbreviated to just PHB) is Dilberts boss in the Dilbert comic strip. ... Look up Empowerment in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. ... Workplace democracy is the application of democracy in all its forms (including voting systems, debates, democratic structuring, due process, adversarial process, systems of appeal, and so on) to the workplace. ...

The Internet

The loose anarchistic structure of the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet itself have inspired some groups to call for more democratization of how domain names are held, upheld, and lost. They note that the Domain Name System under ICANN is the least democratic and most centralized part of the Internet, using a simple model of first-come-first-served to the names of things. Ralph Nader called this "corporatization of the dictionary." The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C and ISO/IEC standard bodies; and dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite. ... The term domain name has multiple related meanings: A name that identifies a computer or computers on the internet. ... It has been suggested that this article be split into multiple articles. ... ICANN headquarters ICANN (IPA /aɪkæn/) is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ... Ralph Nader (born February 27, 1934) is an American attorney and political activist, who has promoted a wide range of issues, including consumer rights, feminism, humanitarianism, environmentalism and democratic government. ...

See also

• List of politics-related topics
• Category:Democracy activists
• Category:Non-violent revolutions
• Category:Post-Soviet Revolutions
• Color revolution
• Chilean transition to democracy
• History of Hungary
• Greek transition to democracy
• Portuguese transition to democracy
• Spanish transition to democracy
• Democratic peace theory
• Transitional justice
• Nation-building
• Non-violent revolution
• Politics of Thailand
• The Third Wave of Democratization (a concept by Samuel Huntington)
• Politics of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• History of Mozambique

The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Liberal democracy History of democracy Referenda Representative democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Elections Elections by country Elections by calender Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by ideology... Color revolutions or Flower revolutions are the names given collectively to a series of related movements that developed in post-communist societies in Central and Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, and are possibly spreading elsewhere including some places in the Middle East. ... The Chilean transition to democracy (colloquially known in Chile as the Transición) began in 1988, with Augusto Pinochets defeat in the October 5, 1988 plebiscite. ... See also the history of Europe, the history of present-day nations and states, Hungary before the Magyars, and Hungary. ... The Metapolitefsi (Greek: Μεταπολίτευση, translated as polity or regime change) refers to the period in Greek history after the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974 and includes the transitional period from the fall of the dictatorship to the Greek legislative elections of 1974 as well as the democratic... Portugals experience with democracy before the Carnation Revolution of 1974 had not been particularly successful. ... The Spanish transition to democracy or new Bourbon restoration was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. ... The democratic peace theory or simply the democratic peace is a theory and related empirical research in international relations, political science, and philosophy which holds that democracies—usually, liberal democracies[1]—never or almost never go to war with one another. ... Transitional justice generally refers to a range of approaches that states may use to address past human rights wrongs and includes both judicial and non-judicial approaches. ... This article or section should be merged with nation-building Nation building is the use of armed force in the aftermath of a conflict to underpin an enduring transition to democracy. ... A non-violent revolution is a revolution using mostly nonviolent protest against governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian to advocate democracy, liberalism or national independence in their nation. ... Click here to visit Thailand The politics of Thailand currently takes place in a framework of a constitutional monarchy, whereby the Prime Minister is the head of government and a hereditary monarch is head of state. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... This article does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Despite President Laurent-Désiré Kabilas claims that his was a transitional government leading to a new constitution and full elections by April 1999, these elections have not as of 2004 been held, and a 1998 draft constitution has not been finalized. ... Mozambiques first inhabitants were San hunter and gatherers, ancestors of the Khoisani peoples. ...

Notes

1. ^ Ken Farr, Richard A. Lord, and J. Larry Wolfenbarger (1998). "Economic Freedom, Political Freedom, and Economic Well-Being: A Causality Analysis". Cato Journal 18 (2): 247-262.  [1]

Further reading

For Democratization articles on the Middle East specifically see democracy in the Middle East This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

• Thomas Carothers. Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve. 1999. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
• Josep M. Colomer. Strategic Transitions. 2000. Baltimore, Md: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Daniele Conversi. ‘Demo-skepticism and genocide’, Political Science Review, September 2006, Vol 4, issue 3, pp. 247-262
• Frederic C. Schaffer. Democracy in Translation: Understanding Politics in an Unfamiliar Culture. 1998. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• Fareed Zakaria. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad. 2003. New York: W.W. Norton.

Fareed Zakaria (born January 20, 1964, Mumbai, India) is a journalist, columnist, author, editor, commentator, and television host specializing in international relations and foreign affairs. ...

External links

• International IDEA
• Measuring Democratization