DEMOCRATIZATION

• Democratization is the process of introducing, institutionalizing, and consolidating democracy in non-democratic societies.

• Democracy signifies rule by the people, reconciling the interests of various groups through negotiation rather than violence.

• It is not just a form of government but also a social condition or way of life.

• In a true democracy, there is a two-way communication between the government or state and the citizens.

• The government is elected by the citizens based on its performance, and it is accountable to the people for its actions.

• Active citizen participation limits government power and checks authoritarian tendencies.

• Democratization is a gradual process with no single defined path and takes time to consolidate.

• The idea of democracy has transformed the world from systems of monarchy, empire, and conquest to rule by the people, self-determination, and peaceful co-existence.

• Democracy leads to the establishment of values like liberty, equality, and justice, fostering social cohesion through cooperation among citizens.

• At the international level, democracy plays a significant role in the democratic peace theory by Immanuel Kant, which posits that democratic states do not wage war against each other, ensuring world peace.

• In comparative politics, analyzing the process of democratization helps in drawing conclusions about different countries and understanding the reasons for this process.

• Analysis of democratization helps answer questions like whether a country can become a democracy regardless of its history, economic development, or political culture.

• It also examines whether there are preconditions for democracy to take root and flourish in a country.

• It seeks to understand why the process of democratization has failed in some states while it has succeeded in others.

• The process of democratization is particularly relevant in understanding the challenges faced by newly emergent countries of the Global South and states transitioning from authoritarian structures during the Third wave of democratization that began in the 1970s.

PROCESS OF DEMOCATIZATION IN POST-COLONIAL COUNTRIES

INTRODUCTION

• The idea of democracy has endured despite the crumbling of old political certitudes.

• The global acceptance of democracy has been evident in the last three decades, with many countries transitioning from authoritarian regimes to democratic systems.

• What was once a small and homogenous group of democratic regimes, mostly in the West, has become large and heterogeneous in the new millennium.

• Samuel Huntington (1991) identified three distinctive ‘waves’ of democratization, tracing democratic transitions over two centuries.

• The ‘first wave’ lasted from the American and French Revolution to World War I (1826-1926), gradually spreading democracy to industrializing West European countries.

• The process was disrupted by the rise of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes during the inter-war period, including in the West.

• The ‘second wave’ of democratization occurred after World War II, with the ousting of authoritarian regimes in countries like Germany, Italy, and Japan.

• The wave lasted until the mid-1960s and brought democracy to most of Western Europe.

• The end of World War II also led to the liberation of colonial countries, establishing democratic regimes in postcolonial nations like India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka.

• However, many postcolonial countries lapsed into authoritarianism shortly after adopting democratic political systems.

• The ‘reverse wave’ saw most of Asia, Africa, and Latin America turn authoritarian, including older post-colonial democracies like Chile and Uruguay.

• The ‘third wave of democratization’ began in the mid-1970s with the overthrow of dictators in Portugal, Greece, and Spain.

• By 1973, only 45 out of 151 countries were political/electoral democracies.

• The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe revived democratization as a global trend.

• By the end of the twentieth century, three-fourths of the world’s countries had become democratic.

• By 2003, 63% of states, representing close to 70% of the global population, were under liberal-democratic regimes.

• The past three decades saw large-scale transitions to democracy across all regions, not confined to any particular geographical-political area.

• With the spread of globalization, democracy as a form of good governance gained wider acceptance as the best form of government.

• Democratization and modernization became regarded as a natural and inevitable process, with all systems of rule eventually transitioning to liberal-democratic lines.

• Modernization eroded the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes, while citizens developed the skills and political resources to demand equal participation in policymaking.

• Przeworski (1991) argued that democratization typically involves three processes: a) breakdown of the old regime, b) construction of new liberal-democratic structures, c) overall acceptance of these structures by both political elites and the masses.

• Global capitalist economic systems, led by liberal democracies, played a role in promoting democracy worldwide.

• World Bank and IMF conditioned loans to poorer countries on adopting democratic forms of governance.

• The collapse of the Soviet Union discredited the socialist system and pushed post-communist countries towards democracy.

• Linz (2000) noted that after communism’s fall, democracy became the only principle of legitimacy.

• Global and transnational influences led to the transplantation of democratic institutions, often through coercive economic diplomacy.

• Despite widespread democratization, transitions in different countries have varied, leading to a focus on the quality of democracy in these nations.

• Scholars are increasingly concerned with why some democracies seem “better” than others and are conducting studies to assess the degree of democracy in various countries.

• ‘Democracy barometer’ studies have been undertaken in a comparative mode to measure the quality of democracy.