Chapter : Democratization Process of democratization in post-colonial, post-authoritarian and post-communist countries
Compiled and circulated by: Rajasree Debnath, Associate Professor, Dept. of Political Science, Narajole Raj College
Narajole Raj College
4
thSem : Political Science, (CC) C8T
Democratization : Concept and Definition
Democratization is the process of becoming democracy. The
word was first used by Lord Bryce in 1888. In other words,
democratization is the transition to a more democratic regime,
including substantive political changes moving to a democratic
direction. It may be transition from an authoritarian regime to a full
democracy, a transition from an authoritarian political system to a
semi- democracy or transition from semi-democracy to a
democratic political system.
Samuel P. Huntington (The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century). He defined democratic wave as “ a group of transitions from non-democratic to democratic regimes that occur within a specified period of time and that significantly outnumber transitions in the opposite directions during the period of time.”
We can also explain democratization by reviewing the status
or role or position of the key factors of Democracy as
described by Prof. Larry Diamond i.e,) a political system for
choosing and replacing the government through free and fair
election, ii) the active participation of people, as citizen, in
politics, iii) civic life ; protection of Human Rights of all citizens
and iv) Rule of Law in which the laws and procedures are
applied equally to all citizens. If these factors work /function
properly in any political system then the system would be
considered as a democratic one, on the contrary
democratization would be required.
History of Democratization: Samuel P. Huntington mentioned three waves of democracy in his book, The Third Wave : Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Those are
•The First Wave of Democracy (1828-1940s), began with the granting of
suffrage to the majority of white males in the USA ( described as Jacksonian Democracy) and then suffrage were granted gradually in France, Britain, Australia, Italy and Argentina and few others before 1900.
•The Second Wave of Democracy (1940s to 1970s), victory of the Allied in the Second World War initiated the process of democratization in the colonial
countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
•The Third Wave of Democracy began in 1974 (Carnation Revolution, Portugal) and included the historic democratic transitions in Latin America in the 1980s, Asia Pacific countries ( Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan) from 1886 to 1988, Eastern Europe ( Bulgaria, Hungary, Czec Republic, Ukraine, Belarus, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Romania, Poland) after the collapse of Soviet Union, Sub-Saharan countries (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia) beginning in 1982.
Democratization in the post-colonial countries: Colonialism is the policy and practice of a strong power extending its control territorially over a weaker nation or people. The nation or country ruled by the imperial or Big power, is described as colony of the ruling country. After the world war II, the process of decolonization was started in the former colonies in Asia and Africa and about forty new states achieved autonomy or outright independence from their European colonial rulers . (India, Pakistan, Ceylon-now Sri Lanka, Burma-now Myanmar in Asia, Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe Tunisia etc. in Africa )
The newly emerged independent countries had to face several socio-economic and political problems that led to people’s agitations.
Reasons responsible for people’s agitation were: i) Affects of Colonial Un-Rule, ii) Poor and weak economic condition, due to drainage of resources to the ruling country, iii) Huge population, iv) Destruction of indigenous socio- economic and cultural system by the colonial ruler, v) Unfair and unequal competition in the global market, vi) insurgency and conspiracy of the powerful states to unstable the socio-economic and political system of the newly independent countries.
Democratization in the post-colonial countries : The post-colonial countries are different on the basis of geographical size, natural resources, socio-political and cultural factors, political and governmental structure etc. It is ,therefore, quite normal that the democratization would not be same in each country.
Determinants of Liberal Democracy: 1.Equality, 2. Alternative Information, 3. Freedom of Speech and Press and media, 4. Transparency of the government structure, 5. Free and Fair Election, 6. Check and Balance or Separation of Power. On the basis of these determinants, evaluation of the degree or effectiveness of democratization is measured.
Malaysia, Indonesia are the two Asian countries who are experiencing third- wave of democracy. Malaysia is a country greatly influenced by the West Minister Democracy (UK) and central state model and is performing well in holding elections and performing of the democratic institutions but failed to ensure the civil and political rights of the people. On the other hand, Indonesia is a Republic and unitary State. Decentralization, proportional electoral system, structure of judiciary, broad coalition , multiparty system,
etc. are the features of the legacy of its colonial past. In Indonesia, people more or less enjoy civil liberty and political rights but failed to combat corruption. Both of the countries failed to achieve the status of fully liberal democratic country due to limitations mentioned above
.
Criticisms against democratization : Different countries with different history and culture produce different democracies, conventional and similar paradigms seem to be inadequate and unscientific to measure the progress towards democracy in post-colonial countries.
•Limits of the post-colonial countries in terms of its domestic capacities must be taken into consideration.
•Variety of cultural conceptions of the proper relationship between community and individual in different countries must not be ignored.
These factors certainly determine the difference of trajectories of democratization among the post-colonial countries as well as difference between the post-colonial and western countries.
Democratization in the post-authoritarian and post-Communist countries The starting point of the discussion on the above issue must be the definition of the two concepts i.e. Democracy and Authoritarianism.
Democracy is a set of institutions that make domestic politics competitive and accountable to the public through elections, separation of powers, free media and existence and functioning of the civil society institutions and above all people is considered as the source of sovereignty.
Authoritarianism: In the twentieth century, it is seen that mass politics and institutional rationalization are far from synonymous with democracy.
Highly efficient, rational and mass-scale institutions of suppressions were created on behalf of the people and purportedly for its liberation. But the matter of concern is that people are being enslaved, even to a greater extent than any previously existing form of autocracy. It will not be wrong to describe the terms “authoritarianism” and “totalitarianism” as the modern form of autocracy.
Rise and fall of Socialism:
•Emergence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) in 1917 , as the first self-declared Socialist State.
• Publication of the Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848), by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engle.
•By 1985, one third of the world population lived under a Marxist-Leninist system of government in one form or other.
•With the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991, several Marxist-Leninist States repudiated or abolished the ideology altogether.
•By the twenty-first century, only a few number of Marxist-Leninist States remained, namely Cuba, Vietnam, Laos.
Democratization in post-communist countries
Emergence of the first ever Socialist country i.e. the USSR inspired innumerable countries in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Among those countries few were Yugoslavia, East Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria in Europe and Vietnam, Laos in Asia.
But with the dissolution of Soviet Union in 1991 (Glasnost and Perestroika), a series of changes took place in most of the socialist countries and most of the states repudiated the ideology of socialism.
Former socialist countries like Yugoslavia had to face a series of ethnic conflicts , war of independence from 1991 to 2001 and finally broke into several independent successor states like Slovenia, Croatia and others.
Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state in 1948.But increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in 1968 to the reform movement known as Prague Spring and finally in 1989 Velvet Revolution ended communist rule, and reestablished democracy and a market economy.
Communist countries in different parts of the world experience reforms or changes in the ideology of socialism to meet the demand of the people for democracy, thus democratization in the post-communist countries took place as described by S.P. Huntington (The Third Wave : Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century).
Criticism of the theory of Democratization:
1.Huntington’s theory of democratization is criticized by the communist theorists as an western or capitalist attack or conspiracy against socialism.
2. Huntington is also criticized from the point that modernization does not mean westernization, example of Japan, China and the four Asian Tigers (highly developed countries i.e. Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) ,these countries are newly industrialized and achieved dramatic growth.
Finally, we can came to conclusion that though the theory of democratization is being discussed and accepted widely but it is not beyond criticism.
Reference Books and Websites
1. Colonization and Post-Colonial Democracy Development in Indonesia and Malaysia An International Comparative Case Study Master Thesis
2.Partha Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, Columbia University Press, 2004.
3. Dipesh Chakraborty, Habitations of Modernity, Chicago IL Chicago University Press, 2002.
4. African Center for Strategic Studies, Session 2: Democracy and Governance in Authoritarian Transitions – Dr. Gilbert M. Khadiagala.
5.The Third Wave : Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Samuel P. Huntington.
