Comprehensive summary of democracies autocracies transitions (DAT) required readings
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Course
Democracies autocracies transitions
Institution
Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Providing an in-depth summary of almost all required readings for the DAT course in the school year 2022/3. The articles missing are the "Forced to be Free?" and the "Ulema State Alliance".
COMPREHENSIVE SUMMARY OF (ALMOST) ALL
READINGS FOR DAT (DEMOCRACIES,
AUTOCRACIES, TRANSITIONS) CLASS FOR UVA
2022/3
(does not include the Kuru “Ulema State” article and the Downes et al “Forced to be Free?”
article)
1
,Lecture 1:
Sen, A. “Democracy as a Universal Value”
History & development of democracy:
- Ancient Greece
- Magna Carta
- Independence War USA + French philosophers (devolution & branches of power)
- Discussions on whether a country is “fit for democracy” (19th century) to conclusions that
a country becomes fit by employing democracy
- Now: democratic governance is generally thought to be right or the ideal/ universally
relevant system (20th century)
→ before this was not the case, many countries had to fight for universal rights until
recently
- Democracy as a universal value?
India
- Fight for independence against the British
- Unstable Parliament after 1947
- Challenge: variety of languages, religions
→ sectarian politicians & sectarian violence
- Now: democracy works remarkably well
→ challenges tackled with constitutional guidelines
→ electoral & parliamentary guidelines
→ condemning sectarian violence as a democratic guarantee
Democracy & economic development
Non-democratic regimes bring about more economic growth & development? (the Lee
hypothesis)
- Selective evidence
- Systematic empirical evidence provides no support for a conflict between economic
performance and political rights (democratic and non-democratic regimes can incite
economic development)
- Overwhelming evidence for creating a friendlier economic climate in order to generate
faster economic growth
→ need for economic and social security
- Famines have also never occurred in a democratic country
→ easy to prevent, especially in a pluralist government where opposing parties/ voters
complain in the face of elections
- A nondemocratic country can work well when there are no ‘dangers’ or disasters, but a
democratic government generally provides more stability as it is more reactive and
efficient in times of change and instability
2
,The functions of a democracy
- Voting
- Respect for election results
- Protection of liberties and freedoms
- Guaranteeing of free discussion and uncensored distribution of news
- Respect for legal entitlements
- Generating informed and considered choices depends on the extent of the ability to
exercise political and civil rights
Enriches human life:
- Political freedom → political and social participation have an intrinsic value for human
life, development and well-being
- Instrumental importance through open dialogue, effective voting bring concerns of
citizens to political attention
- Constructive role: citizens and politicians learn from each other → society forms its
values based on its participants & diversity of considerations
→ public discussions also determine values vs. needs
These merits are not regional in character!!
Universality of values
- Universality of values does not mean that everyone values the same thing, but that
everyone sees it as something with a good reason to be valuable
- Protective role of democracy is desirable to all citizens which seek external security (e.g.
lower classes, families, marginalized communities)
- No evidence that a culture or a class downright rejects democracy
- Where political freedom has been denied, there are protests to fight these oppressions
The Argument from Cultural Differences
- “Asian values” not aligned with the Western values?
→ but this is false since classic Indian, Persian and Middle Eastern literature &
philosophy argues for tolerance of pluralism and the duty of the state to protect the
minorities
→ also: a large territory, hard to make accurate generalizations
→ and even if you look at East Asia & Confucianism: variations within countries since
there is no homogeneous worship of order over freedom
→ Confucius also does not preach blind allegiance to the state
→ Confucius argues for: loyalty to family and obedience to the state (can be conflicting
and more difficult to interpret)
- Middle East & Islam: portrayal as a fundamentally intolerant and hostile to different
religions or individual freedoms
→ varieties of islamic traditions
- Differences among cultures do not discredit universality of democracy
3
, Teorell, J.: Determinants of Democratization
Introduction
- Third wave of democratization: establishment of democratic practices around the globe
in the late 20th-early 21st century. But why?
1. Modernization theory: Trend happened because of the upshot of socioeconomic
modernization (furthered economic development, industrialization and
educational expansion)
→ modernization affects regime outcomes by hindering authoritarian reversals
rather than promoting transitions towards democracies
→ democracy does not help countries scale upwards but rather helps them from
regressing
→ media proliferation as the most effective syndrome of modernization which
mobilizes democratization because democracy-promoting effects of the media
cannot materialize under authoritarian regimes. So, the effect of media on
democratization increases with the level of democracy already in place
2. Transition paradigm & idiosyncratic factors: democracy brought above through
strategic skills and elites in times of uncertainty
→ economic upturns help sustain authorities and economic crises trigger
transitions towards democracy
→ but this is not just driven by elite actors so:
3. Social forces: democratization triggered by mass mobilization from below
→ deteriorating economic conditions help mobilize protests against the regime
due to instabilities which crises cause in autocratic countries which do not have
the framework to deal with them effectively
→ only peaceful demonstrations are effective in promoting democratization
- first and second wave after the world wars
- However: third wave has also been accompanied by the autocratic pull in the opposite
direction
E.g. Latin America democratic deterioration in the 1990s (Colombia & Venezuela)
Belarus, Russia (democratic politics erosion)
Democratization:
- Rooted in economic and social conditions
- International system influences the conditions in the nation state
→ the fall in one regime is likely going to lead to a fall among neighboring regimes
E.g. authoritarian dominoes influenced each other’s fall
- Colonialism has no systematic effects when it comes to democratization
- Democratization did also not ensure from increased economic equality
- Identity politics can impede on democratization
- Short-term democratization cannot be explained by structural theories, while long-term
democratization can (i.e. long-run equilibrium level of democracies, explanatory
4
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