• 1- Understanding democratic transitions

• 2- Typology of transitions

• 3- Prerequisites and conditions

• 1- Conceptual issues

• 2- Explaining ‘transition’

• 3- Problems of ‘transition’

1- Conceptual Issues

• ‘Transition’ transition from authoritarian rule

• ‘regime’ formal & informal structure of governmental roles & processes

distinguish b/w regime & Govt = 3 Q

• 1- methods of inauguration?

• 2- formal & informal representative mechanisms?

• 3- patterns of coercion?

• ‘Authoritarian’ a system with significant procedural proscriptions on political contestation or inclusiveness

• ‘Democracy’ “an essentially contested concept”

• Robert Dhal ‘polyarchy’

“Regimes that have been substantiallypopularised and liberalised, that ishighly inclusive and extensively opento public contestation”

Preface to Democracy (1971, 8)

• ‘Liberalisation’

• easing of repression +

• restoration of civil liberties part of a process

liberalisation precedes ‘democratisation’

• ‘Democratisation’ creation of institutions & procedures that allow for all 3 aspects of Dahl’s polyarchy

• Huntington (The Third Wave) :

• Democratisation alternation of power

2- Explaining ‘Transition’

• Complex term = variety of meanings:

• 1- erosion of authoritarianism

• 2- conditions for democratic transitions

• 3- process of democratic regime change

• 4- consolidation of new democracies

• 5-consolidation of ‘established’ democracies

• Concern two decades of inquiry

• Two issues =

• 1- difficulties of dealing with democratic rule

• 2- the nature & causes of its breakdown

context of inquiry

• I. Mid-1960s-early 1970s: breakdown of democratic rule in developing nations (e.g. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Uruguay)

• Scholarly attention international constraints obstructing democracy (e.g. dependency) = internal & external forms of political economic domination

• II. Early to late 1970s:

• renewed interest in democratisation (e.g. Portugal, Spain, Greece)

• III. Late 1980s-early 1990s:

• a) democratising trends in long-authoritarian regimes (El Salvador, S/Korea, Guatemala;

• b) breakdown of communism (E. Europe)

3- Problems of Transition

• 1- defining chronological parameters of T

• Three Questions:

• Does it have its roots within the process of transformation of an authoritarian R?

• Does it begin after the fall of such R?

• How do you account for reverses?

• 2- Difficulty of defining its end point:

• Two Questions:

• When democratic procedures, rights and rules of the game have been clearly defined and accepted by elites and citizens?

• Is it complete with the first alternation of power?

Democratisation byregime

Democratisationagainst regime

Consensual Non-consensual

Gradual Rapid ThroughRupture

1- Incrementaldemocratisation

Or2- Protractedrevolutionarystruggle

Transition throughtransaction

1- Coups2- Collapse3- Extrication

1- UK & Sweden2- France (1789) &Nicaragua (1979)

Spain (1975-1978)Chile (1989)Korea (1988)

1-Portugal (1974)2- Germany, Italyand Japan (postWWII)3- Argentina & E.Europe

• Diverse explanations

• Example: Lipset Hypothesis

• “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development & Political Legitimacy”, American Political Science Review 53 (1959), pp. 69-105.

• Dhal agrees economic development expands the range of people with capacities to get involved politically:

• “A modern dynamic pluralist society disperses power, influence, authority and control away from any single centre toward a variety of individuals, groups, associations and organisations”

• R. Dhal, Democracy and its Critics (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), p. 252.

• Lipset High level of economic development is a precondition for building and maintaining democracy

• Inquiry focus = pinpoint causes

• International system, class structure, economic performance, political institutions

• New Writings on democracy pay attention to the warning of Dankwart Rustow

• Draws attention to correlation not cause

• Stresses that there is no single road to democracy + history, context

• “Transitions to Democracy,” Comparative Politics 2 (1970)

• 1- Divide in two or three groups

• 2- List what you consider to be essential prerequisites for democratic transition

• 3- Think about culture & external variables

• 4- Apply these requisites to the Middle East in your next tutorial