In societies divided on ethnic and religious lines, problems of democracy are magnified – particularly where groups are mobilized into parties. With the principle of majority rule, minorities should ...be less willing to endorse democratic institutions where their parties persistently lose elections. While such problems should also hamper transitions to democracy, several diverse Eastern European states have formed democracies even under these conditions. In this book, Sherrill Stroschein argues that sustained protest and contention by ethnic Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia brought concessions on policies that they could not achieve through the ballot box, in contrast to Transcarpathia, Ukraine. In Romania and Slovakia, contention during the 1990s made each group accustomed to each other's claims and aware of the degree to which each could push its own. Ethnic contention became a de facto deliberative process that fostered a moderation of group stances, allowing democratic consolidation to slowly and organically take root.
This book provides a new, comprehensive analytical framework for the examination of majority-minority relations in deeply divided societies. Hegemonic states in which one ethnic group completely ...dominates all others will continue to face enormous pressures to transform because they are out of step with the new, emerging, global governing code that emphasizes democracy and equal rights. Refusal to change would lead such states to lose international legitimacy and face increasing civil strife, instability, and violence. Through systematic theoretical analysis and careful empirical study of 14 key cases, Peleg examines the options open to polities with diverse populations. Challenging the conventional wisdom of many liberal democrats, Peleg maintains that the preferred solution for a traditional hegemonic polity is not merely to grant equal rights to individuals, but also to incorporate significant group rights via mega-constitutional transformation.
The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper reevaluates how United Nations peacekeeping missions reform (or fail to reform) their participating members. It investigates how such missions affect military ...organizations and civil-military relations as countries transition to a more democratic system.
Two-thirds of the UN’s peacekeepers come from developing nations, many of which are transitioning to democracy as well. The assumption is that these “blue helmet” peacekeepers learn not only to appreciate democratic principles through their mission work but also to develop an international outlook and new ideas about conflict prevention. Arturo C. Sotomayor debunks this myth, arguing that democratic practices don’t just “rub off” on UN peacekeepers. So what, if any, benefit accrues to these troops from emerging democracies?
In this richly detailed study of a decade’s worth of research (2001–2010) on Argentine, Brazilian, and Uruguayan peacekeeping participation, Sotomayor draws upon international socialization theory and civil-military relations to understand how peacekeeping efforts impact participating armed forces. He asks three questions: Does peacekeeping reform military organizations? Can peacekeeping socialize soldiers to become more liberalized and civilianized? Does peacekeeping improve defense and foreign policy integration?
His evaluation of the three countries’ involvement in the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti reinforces his final analysis—that successful democratic transitions must include a military organization open to change and a civilian leadership that exercises its oversight responsibilities.
The Myth of the Democratic Peacekeeper contributes to international relations theory and to substantive issues in civil-military relations and comparative politics. It provides a novel argument about how peacekeeping works and further insight into how international factors affect domestic politics as well as how international institutions affect democratizing efforts.
Defusing democracy Boylan, Delia Margaret
2001., 20100602, 2001, c2001.
eBook
Many of today's new democracies are constrained by institutional forms designed by previous authoritarian rulers. In this timely and provocative study, Delia M. Boylan traces the emergence of these ...vestigial governance structures to strategic behavior by outgoing elites seeking to protect their interests from the vicissitudes of democratic rule. One important outgrowth of this political insulation strategy—and the empirical centerpiece of Boylan's analysis—is the existence of new, highly independent central banks in countries throughout the developing world. This represents a striking transformation, for not only does central bank autonomy remove a key aspect of economic decision making from democratic control; in practice it has also kept many of the would-be expansionist governments that hold power today from overturning the neoliberal policies favored by authoritarian predecessors. To illustrate these points, Defusing Democracy takes a fresh look at two transitional polities in Latin America—Chile and Mexico—where variation in the proximity of the democratic "threat" correspondingly yielded different levels of central bank autonomy. Boylan concludes by extending her analysis to institutional contexts beyond Latin America and to insulation strategies other than central bank autonomy. Defusing Democracy will be of interest to anyone—political scientists, economists, and policymakers alike—concerned about the genesis and consolidation of democracy around the globe.
The author takes a close look at forces shaping the future for leaders in all sectors. He describes the research he has conducted for a three‐part Potentialist book series, to be published between ...2022 and 2024. He describes the term “potentialism,” as saying that it “became a practice of looking at life through a lens of opportunity in my personal life and the organizations and people I led. It involves gaining the broadest possible perspective by looking back at history and forward to the future and then applying the improved perspective to make better decisions.” In particular he looks at democratization as it applies to a number of people and fields: organizations, institutions, and individuals/consumers. They are affected in various ways, including in his words: Adaptive Response Differences, Rapid Adoption by Individuals and Consumers, Disruption, and Deinstitutionalization. He summarizes changes on the horizon for areas, which in his words, are information and knowledge, creative content, consumer goods, educational institutions, and news media. Also in his words, the characteristics of democratization will play out in the following ways: consumer first; Informed, Integrative choice, Customization/Personalization, Direct and Instant, Collaborative, and Maturational. “A leader’s visionary role has never been more urgent or essential,” he concludes.
Unlike most other emerging South American democracies, Venezuela has not succumbed to a successful military coup d'etat during four decades of democratic rule. What drives armed forces to follow the ...orders of elected leaders? And how do emerging democracies gain that control over their military establishments? Harold Trinkunas answers these questions in an examination of Venezuela's transition to democracy following military rule and its attempts to institutionalize civilian control of the military over the past sixty years, a period that included three regime changes.Trinkunas first focuses on the strategic choices democratizers make about the military and how these affect the internal civil-military balance of power in a new regime. He then analyzes a regime's capacity to institutionalize civilian control, looking specifically at Venezuela's failures and successes in this arena during three periods of intense change: the October revolution (1945-48), the Pact of Punto Fijo period (1958-98), and the Fifth Republic under President Hugo Chavez (1998 to the present). Placing Venezuela in comparative perspective with Argentina, Chile, and Spain, Trinkunas identifies the bureaucratic mechanisms democracies need in order to sustain civilian authority over the armed forces.
Charting and comparing Tunisia's, Algeria's, Morocco's and Mauritania's political development over the past 10 years, this book offers fresh and original insight into their contrasting experiences as ...well as extending Levitsky and Way's model.
The transition paradigm has traditionally viewed civil society activism as an essential condition for the establishment of democracy. The democracy promotion strategies of Western policy-makers have, ...therefore, been based on strengthening civil society in authoritarian settings in order to support the development of social capital -to challenge undemocratic regimes.
This book questions the validity of the link between an active associational life and democratization. It examines civil society in the Arab world in order to illustrate how authoritarian constraints structure civil society dynamics in the region in ways that hinder transition to democracy. Building on innovative theoretical work and drawing on empirical data from extensive fieldwork in the region, this study demonstrates how the activism of civil society in five different Arab countries strengthens rather than weakens authoritarian practices and rule. Through an analysis of the specific legal and political constraints on associational life, and the impact of these on relations between different civic groups, and between associations and state authorities, the book demonstrates that the claim that civil society plays a positive role in processes of democratic transformation is highly questionable.
Offering a broad and alternative vision of the state of civil society in the region, this book will be an important contribution to studies on Middle Eastern politics, democratization and civil society activism.
Francesco Cavatorta is Senior Lecturer in International Relations and Middle East Politics at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University. His research interests lie in processes of democratisation in the Arab world, the political role of Islamist movements and civil society activism. He has published his research in a number of journals and has previously authored a book on failed transition in Algeria.
Vincent Durac is a Lecturer in Middle East Politics and Politics of Development in the School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. He is interested in political reform, the role of civil society and the impact of external actors on the Middle East He is also a visiting lecturer in Middle East Politics at Bethlehem University in Palestine.
Introduction 1. Civil Society in the Arab world 2. Associational Life under Authoritarian Constraints 3. Algeria 4. Morocco 5. Jordan 6. Yemen 7. Lebanon 8. The Dynamics of Civic Activism in the Arab World
"Cavatorta and Durac have produced an interesting study that re-examines the assumed connection between an active civil society and democratization... their argument is worthy of consideration by scholars and students of Middle East and North African politics, Islamist socio-political movements, and comparative politics." - Christopher Anzalone, Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University; Journal of Islamic Studies, vol 23, no 1, January 2012
Amid the current turmoil in the Middle East,Understanding Tahrir Squaresounds a rare optimistic note. Surveying countries in other parts of the world during their transitions to democracy, author ...Stephen Grand argues that the long-term prospects in many parts of the Arab world are actually quite positive. If the current polarization and political violence in the region can be overcome, democracy will eventually take root. The key to this change will likely be ordinary citizens-foremost among them the young protestors of the Arab Spring who have filled the region's public spaces-most famously, Egypt's Tahrir Square.
The book puts the Arab Spring in comparative perspective. It reveals how globalization and other changes are upending the expectations of citizens everywhere about the relationship between citizen and state. Separate chapters examine the experiences of countries in the former Eastern bloc, in the Muslim-majority states of Asia, in Latin America, and in Sub-Saharan Africa during the recent Third Wave of democratization. What these cases show is that, at the end of the day, democracy requires democrats.
Many complex factors go into making a democracy successful, such as the caliber of its political leaders, the quality of its constitution, and the design of its political institutions. But unless there is clear public demand for new institutions to function as intended, political leaders are unlikely to abide by the limits those institutions impose. If American policymakers want to support the brave activists struggling to bring democracy to the Arab world, helping them cultivate an effective political constituency for democracy-in essence, growing the Tahrir Square base-should be the lodestar of U.S. assistance.
