1. Transitions to Democracy

2. The world circa 1960: 20-25 stable liberal democracies,
some newly independent countries trying liberal democracy
80-90 countries either under or tending toward some form authoritarianism

3. located primarily in Western Europe, North America,
& the white commonwealth:
Australian
New Zealand
Canada

4. Latin America:
alternated between shaky polyarchies and military government, e.g.
Argentina
Brazil
Peru
Mexico
Paraguay…..

5. Communist party-state systems:
USSR
Poland
Czechoslovakia
Hungary
Bulgaria
Romania
Yugoslavia
People’s Republic of China
North Korea
North Viet Nam
Albania

6. The three waves of democratization
1rst wave:
2nd wave:
interwar period
followed by a reverse wave
post world war II: re-democratization of
Italy
West Germany (Federal Republic of Germany)
Japan
3rd wave -- from 1970… to present?

7. 1970s Greece (military dictatorship, 1967-74) Portugal 1974
end of Salazar-Caeteno regime (from 1931)
Spain (1975)
end of Franco regime (from 1939)

8. 1980s collapse of military regimes in Latin America Argentina, 1982
Brazil (opening )
Uruguay
Paraguay
Bolivia...

9. 1989and beyond fall of Berlin Wall
collapse of ‘satellite’ Communist regimes in east central Europe
break-up of the Soviet Union
Chile
Republic of South Africa
South Korea
Taiwan

10. Transitional vs. consolidated democracies
Transitional democracies -- newly launched or re-democratized liberal democracies
Consolidated democracies:
no significant challenges to regime
“the only game in town”
Some questions:
How do we know a regime is consolidated?
How do regimes become consolidated?

11. Categories, scales, classificatory schemes:
levels of measurement
classifying democracies
liberal democracy v. non-democracy..
More democratic v. less democratic
more stable v. less stable
degrees of consolidation: more consolidated v. less consolidated

12. Levels of measurement nominal (discrete categories)
ordinal (a scale: positions on it are either: more or less, higher or lower
interval (a scale on which positions reflect measured differencesb

13. What do we expect to find in a democracy?
Inclusiveness
all or almost all of the adult population entitled to vote
Elections
free and fair elections -- elections with choice
competition

14. Countries and where they fit:

15. Dimensions of liberal democracy:

16. Mexico before 2000: constitution some restrictions on political rights
some competition
elections, but not entirely free and fair elections
dominance of the PRI (Party of Institutional Revolution)

17. Nigeria: First Republic: parliamentary system, 1961-1966
civil war blocking Biafran secession,
military rule:
General Gowan, General
Obasanjo, 1975/6-1979
Second Republic: presidential system from
Military governments from
General Babangida
General Abacha
Redemocratization in 1993 under Obasanjo