This book provides an introduction to theory and research on democracy and democratization. From this foundation, it elucidates a systematic framework to conceptualize democracy for comparative study.
In recent decades, the regions of Russia have taken different paths of regime transition. Despite the consolidation of an autocratic regime at national level and the centralization steered by Vladimir Putin’s government, the variation across sub-national regimes persists. Using an innovative theoretical framework, this book explores both causes and consequences of democratization in the regions of Russia. It is the first study in the field to systematically integrate structural and agency approaches in order to account for economic, social, historical and international causes of democratization and to trace its consequences. By focusing on the challenging and under-studied topic of sub-national regimes, the book provides a unique perspective on regime transition and the new theoretical framework contributes to a better understanding of democratization world-wide. The book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democratization, sub-national regimes, East European politics, comparative politics, post-communism, and international relations.
While the process of democratization is nowadays an established scholarship, the reverse process of de-democratization has generated less attention even when the regression or even breakdown of democracy occurred on a regular basis over past decades. This book investigates both the different combination of explanatory factors triggering the transition from democratic rule as well as the role of the actors’ involved in the process. It aims to integrate different levels of analysis and explanatory factors through a comparative analysis of the phenomenon since the beginning of the third wave of democratization. As such, it addresses the existing divide between the approaches focused on the conditions and those focused on the processes of change, using a mixed-method research design. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative politics, democracy, democratization and de-democratization, political theory, and comparative political institutions.
New democracies are uniquely positioned to promote democratic values and have a competitive advantage in the global democracy assistance industry. This book examines the attempts of one group of young democracies, from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), to channel this pro-democracy agenda into both national and European foreign policy and development support. It looks at how CEE is ‘upstream’ changing the EU on crucial policy issues as part of the common foreign and security policy. Furthermore, it tracks the process whereby imported ideas and norms are recycled for further export ‘downstream’, and how these concepts are received in countries outside of the EU including the post-Soviet space, the Western Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa region and Central Asia. This text will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners of democratisation studies, European Union studies, comparative politics, international relations, international development, European politics, as well as area/regional studies.
The discussion of the norm of the rule of law has broken out of the confines of jurisprudence and is of growing interest to many non-legal researchers. A range of issues are explored in this volume that will help non-specialists with an interest in the rule of law develop a nuanced understanding of its character and political implications. It is explicitly aimed at those who know the rule of law is important and while having little legal background, would like to know more about the norm.
Democratic transitions have occurred in many countries in various regions across the globe, such as Southern Europe, Latin America, Africa, East and Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and these nations have undergone simuntaneously political, economic and social transformations. Yet, the patterns and characteristics of transitions have varied significantly, and different modes of transition have resulted in different outcomes. This book offers cross-national comparisons of democratic transition since the turn of the twentieth century and asks what makes democracies succeed or fail. In doing so it explores the influence the mode of transition has on the longevity or durability of the democracy, by theoretically examining and quantitatively testing this relationship. The authors argue that the mode of transition directly impacts the success and failure of democracy, and suggest that cooperative transitions, where opposition groups work together with incumbent elites to peacefully transition the state, result in democracies that last longer and are associated with higher measures of democratic quality. Based on a cross-national dataset of all democratic transitioning states since 1900, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of international politics, comparative politics and democracy, and democratization studies.
The Middle East captured front pages worldwide for the alleged Arab Spring in 2011. Large segments of the populations of Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria took to the streets to voice their protest against autocratic regimes and to demand democracy. Violent uprisings followed, but the prospects of liberal democracy are still uncertain and distant. No wonder. Democratization took a couple of centuries in the West. And even today, well-established Western democracies are under pressure from globalization and regionalization, and many claim representative democracy is in need of renewal. This collection of essays focuses on a number of theoretical issues associated with democracy and democratization. Divided into three parts, the first part analyzes how democracy may be understood, explained and measured. The second part deals with issues of democracy, international stability, and development in fragile and developmental states and regions. The third part of the book looks at representative democracy in old democracies and its potential for development.
Though scholarly attention to democracy promotion is increasing, there is still little comparative and theoretically-based work on the protagonists of democracy promotion. This book investigates the motives that drive democracy promotion in a comparative and theoretically oriented manner, exploring how democracy promoters deal with conflicting objectives and the factors that shape their behaviour. It also addresses the more policy-oriented debate on the contemporary challenges to democracy promotion, focusing on US and German policies towards three kinds of challenges: the emergence of ‘radical’ leftist governments in Bolivia and Ecuador, the political rise of Islamist movements in Turkey and Pakistan, and the consolidation of (semi-)authoritarian rule in Belarus and Russia. In each case, North-Western democracy promoters have been confronted with serious conflicts of objectives between security, economic interests and democracy promotion. The analysis and comparison of such situations in which democracy promoters have to deal with competing objectives and make tough decisions provides powerful evidence as to the factors that shape democracy promotion. The Comparative International Politics of Democracy Promotion will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, comparative politics, democratization studies and foreign policy.
Although "democracy promotion" has become a popular term for policy makers and scholars, democratization is rarely a smooth or linear transition. While some countries quickly democratize, others lag behind despite a long period of democracy promotion activities. Furthermore, while democracy promotion itself has been widely studied, there is a paucity of literature available assessing the outcome or the impact of democracy promotion. This book investigates democracy promotion by the European Union and the United States of America, and seeks to uncover why intensive democracy promotion has resulted in limited democratic progress. Exploring case studies of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, this book examines the conditions in which democracy promotion is more likely to result in democratic transformation. In addition, it introduces the concept of the "democracy blocker," a powerful authoritarian regional actor that is capable of blocking democratization in other countries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Political Science, Democracy, Democratization, EU Studies, US Politics, Comparative Politics, and Foreign Policy.
Do political leaders determine whether a polity will receive a democratic future or not? Research and advocates of democracy agree on the significance of political elites for democratization, yet there is a need for a more specific understanding of their role. This book develops a theory of political leadership at the point of nascent statehood to explain the emergence of resilient democracies. It employs four diverse case studies to examine the role of leadership and democratic consolidation. In doing so, the book identifies certain capacities of political leaders at the critical moment of nascent statehood as decisive to the future democratic quality of their state. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, democratization studies, state building, leadership, nationalism, Middle Eastern studies and South Asian studies.