"[139], Elizabeth Kier has challenged claims that total war prompts democratization, showing in the cases of the UK and Italy during World War I that the policies adopted by the Italian government during World War I prompted a fascist backlash whereas UK government policies towards labor undermined broader democratization. During the following 25 years, there was a dramatic expansion of democracy worldwide. Disagreements about definitions of democracy also make it difficult to measure where a country is in its democratization process. WebDemocratization, or democratisation, is the democratic transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. WebThe meaning of DEMOCRATIZE is to make democratic. ", "Is Small Really Beautiful? [145][146][147] Thomas Risse wrote in 2009, "there is a consensus in the literature on Eastern Europe that the EU membership perspective had a huge anchoring effects for the new democracies. Webverb [ T ] (UK usually democratise) uk / dmk.r.taz / us / dm.kr.taz / to make countries or organizations use democratic ways of making decisions: It's about time we democratized the organization of this company. ), Wucherpfennig, Julian, and Franziska Deutsch. Wiktionary The spread of democracy as a concept. The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, a key lawmaker in Democrats congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump during his presidency. Democratization? - Definition Learn more. [+ object] formal : to make (something) available to all people : to make it possible for all people to understand (something) [95], Steven Fish and Robert Barro have linked Islam to undemocratic outcomes. These scholars instead emphasize how the democratization process occurs in a more contingent manner that depends on the characteristics and circumstances of the elites who ultimately oversee the shift from authoritarianism to democracy. [110], Sheri Berman has rebutted Putnam's theory that civil society contributes to democratization, writing that in the case of the Weimar Republic, civil society facilitated the rise of the Nazi Party. Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for democratize, Nglish: Translation of democratize for Spanish Speakers. The National Labor Relations Board, with a Democratic majority, restored a standard that counts more workers as employees rather than contractors. Germann, Micha, and Kostas Gemenis. : to make (a country or organization) more democratic. And Samuel P. Huntington identified three waves of democratization that have taken place in history. "[63] A 2021 study found that constitutions that emerge through pluralism (reflecting distinct segments of society) are more likely to induce liberal democracy (at least, in the short term). It may be the transition from an authoritarian regime to a full democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a semi-democracy or transition from a semi-authoritarian political system to a democratic political system. [161] A related argument is presented by James A. Robinson in "Critical Junctures and Developmental Paths" (2022). [no object] There is internal pressure on the government to democratize. The US House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to censure Rep. Adam Schiff, a key lawmaker in Democrats congressional investigations into former President Donald Trump during his presidency. Some disagreements among scholars concern the concept of democracy and how to measure democracy - and what democracy indices should be used. "[105], It has long been theorized that education promotes stable and democratic societies. James A. Robinson, "Critical Junctures and Developmental Paths: Colonialism and Long-Term Economic Prosperity," Ch. [112] Yale University political scientist Daniel Mattingly argues civil society in China helps the authoritarian regime in China to cement control. At the same time, these values promote citizen participation in the democratic process by fostering an interest in public issues and a willingness to work to solve collective problems. [137], One analysis found that "Compared with other forms of leadership turnover in autocraciessuch as coups, elections, or term limitswhich lead to regime collapse about half of the time, the death of a dictator is remarkably inconsequential. Democratization However, it does not account for the origins of elite preferences or the conditions that shape negotiations. Examples include: India, Japan, Indonesia, Namibia, Botswana, Taiwan, and South Korea. Webdemocratize definition: 1. to make countries or organizations use democratic ways of making decisions: 2. to make. Haber and Menaldo argue that "natural resource reliance is not an exogenous variable" and find that when tests of the relationship between natural resources and democracy take this point into account "increases in resource reliance are not associated with authoritarianism. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [20][21] Only with the Representation of the People Act 1884 did a majority of the males get the vote. "[167] Based on a comparison of European and Latin American countries, Sebastin Mazzuca and Gerardo Munck, in A Middle-Quality Institutional Trap (2021), argue that counter to the state-first thesis, the "starting point of political developments is less important than whether the Statedemocracy relationship is a virtuous cycle, triggering causal mechanisms that reinforce each. World War II resulted in the Italian Republic. The term is derived from the Greek dmokratia, which was coined from dmos (people) and kratos (rule) in the middle of the 5th century bce to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens. These transitions tend to occur relatively rapidly and result in power-sharing arrangements that preserve elements of the old authoritarian regime. Democratization | Definition An early discussion occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. [90], The thesis that oil and other natural resources have a negative impact on democracy has been challenged by historian Stephen Haber and political scientist Victor Menaldo in a widely cited article in the American Political Science Review (2011). An alternative strategy is to measure the legitimacy of the democratic regime among citizens under the theory that a democracy is consolidated when all political actors recognize democracy as the best system for their society. [141][142], Christian Welzel's human empowerment theory posits that existential security leads to emancipative cultural values and support for a democratic political organization. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Lipset, Seymour Martin. [71] This expectation is in line with the empirical research showing that democracy is more stable in egalitarian societies. [87], Thad Dunning proposes a plausible explanation for Ecuador's return to democracy that contradicts the conventional wisdom that natural resource rents encourage authoritarian governments. [106] Research shows that education leads to greater political tolerance, increases the likelihood of political participation and reduces inequality. ][44], Adam Przeworski and Fernando Limongi argue that while economic development makes democracies less likely to turn authoritarian, there is insufficient evidence to conclude that development causes democratization (turning an authoritarian state into a democracy). [102] A 2020 study failed to replicate those findings. Of course, whether education promotes democracy depends in large part on the content of what is taught and discussed in the education system. [150], The European Union has contributed to the spread of democracy, in particular by encouraging democratic reforms in aspiring member states. Democratization is 'the transition to a more democratic system of government.' DEMOCRATIZATION definition According to Putnam, communities with denser horizontal networks of civic association are able to better build the "norms of trust, reciprocity, and civic engagement" that lead to democratization and well-functioning participatory democracies. [41] Another study suggests that economic development depends on the political stability of a country to promote democracy. One common approach to specifying the democratization process is to differentiate between two phases: (1) the initial transition from an authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regime to an electoral democracy and (2) the subsequent consolidation of the democracy. ", "Endogenous democracy: causal evidence from the potato productivity shock in the old world", "Aristotle: Politics | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy", "Non-Modernization: PowerCulture Trajectories and the Dynamics of Political Institutions", "Lord, Peasant and Tractor? The analysis centered on the interaction among four actors: the hard-liners and soft-liners who belonged to the incumbent authoritarian regime, and the moderate and radical oppositions against the regime. This assumption is undermined by the prevalence of hybrid or mixed regimes produced during the third wave of democratization. Global forces like the diffusion of democratic ideas and pressure from international financial institutions to democratize have led to democratization. [156][157] In other cases, decolonization sometimes facilitated the establishment of democracies that were soon replaced by authoritarian regimes. This process of elite interaction, in turn, determines the institutions and structures that shape competition among social groups in the future and thus the prospects for a well-functioning democracy. Supporters of this argument point to statistical studies based on survey data that show a strong correlation between the attitudes and values of a democratic culture and the number of years a country has experienced democracy. [19] It set out the requirement for regular parliaments, free elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited the power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike much of the rest of Europe, royal absolutism would not prevail. zation (-t-zshn) n. American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. This is not to say that ethnic homogeneity guarantees democracy or that heterogeneity prohibits it; there is little evidence to support either proposition. Democratization, or democratisation, is the democratic transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Wiktionary The spread of democracy as a concept. The third main wave began with the overthrow of the military regime in Portugal in 1974. [143] This is in agreement with theories based on evolutionary psychology. There is, however, broad agreement that the following conditions should not be viewed as deterministic but rather probabilistic in the sense of making democracy more likely to flourish. The success of democracy over time increases levels of democratic attitudes and values as a rational, learned response to the experience of living under a stable democratic regime. One argument is that countries with high levels of the values and attitudes listed above are more likely to adopt democracy than countries that lack these values, regardless of the level of economic development. [64], Robert Bates and Donald Lien, as well as David Stasavage, have argued that rulers' need for taxes gave asset-owning elites the bargaining power to demand a say on public policy, thus giving rise to democratic institutions. [149] international forces can significantly affect democratization. Rather than reverting to authoritarianism, however, many third-wave democracies have become mired in hybrid or mixed regimes that combine elements of both democracy and authoritarianism. Dankwart Rustow argued that "'the most effective sequence' is the pursuit of national unity, government authority, and political equality, in that order. These different understandings of consolidation reflect different definitions of democracy. Democratization - Definition Transitions to and from democracy tend to occur globally and in waves, meaning that they have been clustered in both space and time rather than distributed randomly. [59] Samuel Valenzuela argues that, counter to Moore's view, the landed elite supported democratization in Chile. Web1 a : government by the people especially : rule of the majority b : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections 2 : a political unit that has a democratic government 3 For example, there is no consensus on where to mark the beginning and end points of the democratization process. [76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85] According to Michael Ross, petroleum is the sole resource that has "been consistently correlated with less democracy and worse institutions" and is the "key variable in the vast majority of the studies" identifying some type of resource curse effect. These social ties promote a level of moderation in society that encourages tolerance of diversity and prevents political conflicts from escalating into violence. WebDemocratization is the transition to a more democratic political regime. 2010. "Origins and growth of Parliament". Agricultural Mechanization, Moore's Thesis, and the Emergence of Democracy", "Constitutional Origins and Liberal Democracy: A Global Analysis, 19002015", "A Note on Taxation, Development, and Representative Government", "Representation and Consent: Why They Arose in Europe and Not Elsewhere". Coppedge, Michael, Amanda Edgell, Carl Henrik Knutsen, and Staffan I. Lindberg (eds.). According to a study by Freedom House, in 67 countries where dictatorships have fallen since 1972, nonviolent civic resistance was a strong influence over 70 percent of the time. 2. Learn more. Democratize Definition Wiktionary The making more democratic of a political system. DEMOCRATIZE The English Civil War (16421651) was fought between the King and an oligarchic but elected Parliament,[17] during which the idea of a political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The American political scientist Samuel Huntington identified three main waves of democratization. The assumption is that large inequalities in society exacerbate class conflicts. Democratic 1999. One way to reconcile the strategic-choice and structural-conditions perspectives is through what is called a path-dependent approach. After World War II, during the Allied occupation, Japan adopted a much more vigorous, pluralistic democracy. In all cases, transitions occur when a democratic opposition becomes strong and united enough to confront the authoritarian regime, and the authoritarian regime is too weak and divided to control the situation, either by co-opting the democratic opposition or cracking down through force. and he emphasizes the interdependence of political and economic transformations. Democratization - Definition In top-down transitions, leaders of an authoritarian regime implement democratic reforms because they become convinced that the reforms are necessary for regime survival. Webdemocratize meaning: 1. to make countries or organizations use democratic ways of making decisions: 2. to make. In contrast, they argue that a democratic culture is the product of prolonged experience with democracy. DEMOCRATIZE This reality contradicted the assumption that countries will inevitably take one of two paths, either toward a consolidated liberal democracy or back into authoritarianism. See more. DEMOCRATIZATION [29] Mass democracy, in which the working class had the right to vote, become common only in the 1930s and 1940s.[30]. In addition, the fact that democratization occurs in waves suggests that transitions are not entirely contingent but are shaped by international structural forces. : to make (a country or organization) more democratic. [172] Michael Hanchard, in The Spectre of Race (2018), provides a thorough review of the literature and holds that theories have not adequately acknowledged how ethno-national and racial hierarchies shape the process and prospects of democratization.[173]. An analysis of historical student enrollment rates for 109 countries from 1820 to 2010 finds no support for the claim that democratization increased access to primary education around the world. "[169] Relatedly, as Pamela Paxton showed, "when women are included in measures of democracy, the notion of waves of democracy (Huntington 1991) is no longer strongly supported. When elites and society are evenly balance, inclusive states emerge. 7491, in Christian W. Haerpfer, Patrick Bernhagen, Ronald F. Inglehart, and Christian Welzel (eds. Democracy Democratization is defined as a change in political regime within a sovereign state from nondemocracy to democracy. Sebastin Mazzuca and Gerardo Munck (2021). Because the timing of transitions was highly contingent on contextual factors, many early democratization theorists framed general explanations in terms of the strategic interaction among elites, which produces a decision to adopt democratic procedures and institutions once the opportunity arises. A major criticism of explanations emphasizing economic development is that it is not clear whether the relationship between economic growth and democracy is positive or negative. In a highly unequal society (for example, South Africa under Apartheid), the redistribution of wealth and power in a democracy would be so harmful to elites that these would do everything to prevent democratization. Learn about features of the political landscape such as boundaries, frontiers, and buffer states, as well as powerful forces like colonialism, imperialism, and democratization. During the early 1980s, many scholars were intrigued by the rapid expansion of democratic transitions in southern Europe and Latin America, which challenged the conventional wisdom that authoritarian regimes were robust. Web1. Web1. ", Mazzuca, Sebastin. ", Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, "The Matthew effect in political science: head start and key reforms important for democratization", Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, "Measures of Democratization: From Degree to Type to War", "Domestic and Transnational Perspectives on Democratization", "Democratization and Political Violence - Our World", "Democratization and Violent Conflict: Is There A Scandinavian Exception? The purpose of associations and the norms they promote matter; not all civic associations inculcate norms of tolerance and equality. [62], According to political scientist David Stasavage, representative government is "more likely to occur when a society is divided across multiple political cleavages. WebDemocratize definition, to make or become democratic. DEMOCRATIZATION definition Monarchic and civilian dictatorships seek to remain in power indefinitely through hereditary rule in the case of monarchs or through oppression in the case of civilian dictators. Hitler came to power in part through the mobilization of civil society that characterized Germany in the 1920s. Other scholars criticize these studies for assuming the causal arrow moves in one direction, from culture to democratic institutions. 1986. Learn more. 2016. Research finds that "Western-educated leaders significantly and substantively improve a country's democratization prospects". Thus, Moore challenged modernization theory, by stressing that there was not one path to the modern world and that economic development did not always bring about democracy. [58] Eva Bellin argues that under certain circumstances, the bourgeoise and labor are more likely to favor democratization, but less so under other circumstances. [55], Sociologist Barrington Moore Jr., in his influential Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (1966), argues that the distribution of power among classes the peasantry, the bourgeoise and the landed aristocracy and the nature of alliances between classes determined whether democratic, authoritarian or communist revolutions occurred. There is debate over whether certain modes of transition have a differential effect on the prospects for consolidation. Bunce, Valerie. [4], Whether and to what extent democratization occurs has been attributed to various factors, including economic development, historical legacies, civil society, and international processes. [25] Historians continue to debate the reasons why the Weimar Republic's attempt at democratization failed. Moreover, some arguments are more structural in nature, while others focus on leadership and agency. They also help citizens organize in independent associations that can check state power and make it more responsive and accountable. Democratization is defined as a change in political regime within a sovereign state from nondemocracy to democracy. The term is derived from the Greek dmokratia, which was coined from dmos (people) and kratos (rule) in the middle of the 5th century bce to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens. How to use democratize in a sentence. Symptoms of democratization include reform of the electoral system, increased suffrage and reduced political apathy. Huntington held that that "In practice Confucian or Confucian-influenced societies have been inhospitable to democracy. They encourage a willingness among competing groups to resolve their differences peacefully through the political process even when they do not achieve all of their goals. Webdemocratization definition: 1. the process of making countries or organizations use democratic ways of making decisions: 2. The making more democratic of a political system. Democracy Definition The French Second Republic had universal male suffrage but was followed by the Second French Empire. This can affect the prospects for democratic transitions by determining the durability of authoritarian regimes. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. WebDemocratisation, or processes by which a society could progress from authoritarianism to minimalist democracy to substantive democracy, have never been linear, smooth and free of hazards. The second main wave (194362) occurred through the occupation of the Axis countries by the Allied powers following the end of World War II, the attempts at democratization in newly independent former British colonies during the postwar period, and the spread of democracy in Latin America. Many interpreted this correlation as evidence that economic development, usually measured as per capita gross domestic product (GDP), lays the foundation for democratic transitions. Navy detected likely implosion of Titan hours after vessel began fatal voyage, officials say 8:01 p.m. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Democratization Definition Scholars who favour a strategic-choice approach argue that there is little effect. Democratize Organizations like the Ku Klux Klan demonstrate that citizen associations do not always involve people in harmless efforts and that group involvement does not always cut across existing social cleavages. Webdemocratize: 1 v become (more) democratic; of nations Synonyms: democratise Type of: change undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature v introduce democratic reforms; of nations Synonyms: democratise Type of: alter , change , modify cause to change; make different; cause a transformation