Democratic transition

A democratic transition describes a phase in a country's political system as a result of an ongoing change from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. The process is known as democratisation, political changes moving in a democratic direction. Democratization waves have been linked to sudden shifts in the distribution of power among the great powers, which created openings and incentives to introduce sweeping domestic reforms. Although transitional regimes experience more civil unrest, they may be considered stable in a transitional phase for decades at a time. Since the end of the Cold War transitional regimes have become the most common form of government. Scholarly analysis of the decorative nature of democratic institutions concludes that the opposite democratic backsliding (autocratization), a transition to authoritarianism is the most prevalent basis of modern hybrid regimes.

Typology

Autocratization

Democratic backsliding is a form of autocratization, a process of regime change toward authoritarianism in which the exercise of political power becomes less limited and more arbitrary and repressive. Democratic backsliding specifically assumes a starting point of a democratic system. The process typically restricts the space for public contest and political participation in the process of government selection. Democratic decline involves the weakening of democratic institutions, such as the peaceful transition of power or free and fair elections, or the violation of individual rights that underpin democracies, especially freedom of expression. Democratic backsliding is the opposite of democratization.

Democratisation

Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction.

Factors

Decolonization

Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. The meanings and applications of the term are disputed. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on independence movements in the colonies and the collapse of global colonial empires.

Except for a few absolute monarchies, most post-colonial states are either republics or constitutional monarchies. These new states had to devise constitutions, electoral systems, and other institutions of representative democracy.

Democratic globalization

Democratic globalization is a social movement towards an institutional system of global democracy. One of its proponents is the British political thinker David Held. In the last decade, Held published a dozen books regarding the spread of democracy from territorially defined nation states to a system of global governance that encompasses the entire world. For some, democratic mundialisation (from the French term mondialisation) is a variant of democratic globalisation that emphasizes the need for citizens worldwide to directly elect world leaders and members of global institutions; for others, it is just democratic globalization by another name.

Democracy promotion

Democracy promotion, also referred to as democracy building, can be domestic policy to increase the quality of already existing democracy or a strand of foreign policy adopted by governments and international organizations that seek to support the spread of democracy as a system of government. In practice, it entails consolidating and building democratic institutions.

Outcomes

Democratic consolidation

Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures, in a way that it becomes unlikely to revert to authoritarianism without an external shock, and is regarded as the only available system of government within a country. A country can be described as consolidated when the current democratic system becomes “the only game in town”, meaning no one in the country is trying to act outside of the set institutions. This is the case when no significant political group seriously attempts to overthrow the democratic regime, the democratic system is regarded as the most appropriate way to govern by the vast majority of the public, and all political actors are accustomed to the fact that conflicts are resolved through established political and constitutional rules.

Stalled transition

Hybrid regime

A hybrid regime is a type of political system often created as a result of an incomplete democratic transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one (or vice versa). Hybrid regimes are categorized as having a combination of autocratic features with democratic ones and can simultaneously hold political repressions and regular elections. According to some definitions and measures, hybrid regimes are commonly found in developing countries with abundant natural resources such as petro-states. Although these regimes experience civil unrest, they may be relatively stable and tenacious for decades at a time. There has been a rise in hybrid regimes since the end of the Cold War.

Measurement

The democracy indices differ in whether they are categorical, such as classifying countries into democracies, hybrid regimes, and autocracies, or continuous values. The qualitative nature of democracy indices enables data analytical approaches for studying causal mechanisms of regime transformation processes.

See also

• Politics portal

• Energy transition
• Anti-authoritarianism
• Types of democracy
• Peaceful transition of power
• Radical politics
• Transition economy
• List of freedom indices

Notes

1. Other names include autocratization, democratic decline, de-democratization, democratic erosion, democratic decay, democratic recession, democratic regression, and democratic deconsolidation.
2. Scholars use a variety of terms to encompass the "grey zones" between full autocracies and full democracies. Such terms include: competitive authoritarianism, semi-authoritarianism, hybrid authoritarianism, electoral authoritarianism, liberal autocracy, delegative democracy, illiberal democracy, guided democracy, semi-democracy, deficient democracy, defective democracy, and hybrid democracy.
3. Debates over what can be called "hybrid" still exist, see #Definition section for details.

Further reading

• Coale, Ansley J. (1989). "Demographic Transition". Social Economics. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. pp. 16–23. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-19806-1_4. ISBN 978-0-333-49529-2.
• Croissant, A.; Haynes, J. (2015). Twenty Years of Studying Democratization: Vol 1: Democratic Transition and Consolidation. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-317-61900-0.
• Epstein, David L.; Bates, Robert; Goldstone, Jack; Kristensen, Ida; O'Halloran, Sharyn (2006). "Democratic Transitions". American Journal of Political Science. 50 (3). [Midwest Political Science Association, Wiley]: 551–569. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2006.00201.x. ISSN 0092-5853. JSTOR 3694234.
• Haggard, Stephan; Kaufman, Robert R. (2012). "Inequality and Regime Change: Democratic Transitions and the Stability of Democratic Rule". The American Political Science Review. 106 (3). [American Political Science Association, Cambridge University Press]: 495–516. doi:10.1017/S0003055412000287. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 23275430. S2CID 28273700.
• Glaser, E. (2018). Anti-Politics: On the Demonization of Ideology, Authority and the State. Watkins Media. ISBN 978-1-912248-12-4.
• Huntington, S.P. (2012). The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late 20th Century. The Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-8604-7.
• Kirk, Dudley (1996). "Demographic Transition Theory". Population Studies. 50 (3). Informa UK Limited: 361–387. doi:10.1080/0032472031000149536. ISSN 0032-4728. PMID 11618374.
• Stoner, K.; McFaul, M. (2013). Transitions to Democracy: A Comparative Perspective. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-1-4214-0877-4.