Creating a democracy is a complex and intricate process made more difficult by the fact that it's impossible to examine every democracy "and equally difficult to find a single causal factor of democratization. Lipset and DiPalma offer differing views of this process through two central explanations: crafting and socioeconomic factors. The crafting theory explains that democratization is a function of current governing elites who choose to allow democracy for a variety of reasons. They "craft- the democracy, then step aside to allow it to flourish. The opposing view, offered by Lipset, details that it's actually a combination of factors including education, standard of living, and leisure time which allow a population to flourish and thus cause democracy to happen. Each argument has its own drawbacks.
In the crafting system, there's an initial crisis of legitimacy in which governing elites are forced to make a decision "to maintain power they offer the promises of a democratic system "greater representation, less repression, as well as other reforms. These reformers in the government often have irrational beliefs of their own popularity which they are confident will allow them to continue governing. The crafting method is beneficial as it ensures that a government won't stagnate: the governing elites will ensure there isn't anarchy and help guide the fledgling democracy in the right direction "eventually giving up their decision-making. This usually involves making concessions to hardliner members of the ruling party and the creation of pro-democratic coalitions.
The crafting methods flaws are substantial, though. In a traditional society with an uneducated population, it can be difficult to understand the benefits of democracy, and also difficult to ensure an informed voting body free of corruption. "The quality of the finished product- as well as the "transition in decision making- can be difficult to guarantee, especially as you're demanding that the ruling party give up its control.
The definition of a civil society is complex because there is no real clear cut explanation. ... Also, NGOs strengthen civil society by emphasizing bottom-up democratization or in other words, empowerment. This concept of bottom-up democratization has been utilized in countries such as Argentina and Costa Rica who struggle with health care issues. ...
Culture, politics, economics, and democratization takes a subjective view on the achievement or failure of various countries in an ever shifting society. ... Some of his main ideas I received from the article are that " We must admit that we do not really know what causes economic growth" (Shweder p.159) Economic growth and the manifestation of the good life are achieved not by causal explanations easily handed out for the sake of answers or a conclusion although most of these articles are examples of the handouts and causation he critiques here. ... In short Shweder"s explanation of ec...
Freeing themselves also lent added importance to helping out those in less fortunate positions, which explains why democratization is such a large part of America's foreign policy. ... Keeping his identity a secret makes sense given the explanation above, but by keeping his identity a secret from his aunt and Mary Jane as well, it is obvious that he does not want outside involvement as he tinkers with his powers and vigilante activities. ... Unlike India, which is democratized and moving more and more towards individualism, Japan is a very Eastern, fully communalist culture with values very di...
The last point I'd like to highlight in defining liberalism is democratization, where democracy is a force for peace. ... Another explanation is that if the decision were left to the people of a democracy rather than the national leader, conflicts would be heavily reduced (Baylis et al. 2011, p.104). Although China may not be defined as a complete liberal democracy, and more towards an authoritarian state, nevertheless, as a result of China's constant cultural and economic development, liberals presume China to be in the process of democratization (Zheng 1999, p.8). ... Thus, the timely proces...
In an effort to quell the student unrest, which had led to clashes with riot police, Alia met with the students and agreed to take further steps toward democratization. ... On December 17, the Democratic Front's daily newspaper, Bashkimi, described what had occurred and then warned that such violence could lead to a conservative backlash, suggesting that conservative forces posed a real threat to the process of democratization in the country. ...
Comparative political scientists have always worked to develop methods to examine why countries develop and act in the way they do. These methods often times are similar to previous methods, but often times are different in their approach and reasoning. The trick is to develop a new and different approach to study. The grand theories of comparative politics are structural functionalism, modernization, dependency, and the NIC theory. These grand theories are causal arguments - they make specific arguments about what exactly is needed in order for a country to develop and progress. ...
Democracies Fight Aristocratic and Nondemocratic Governments While studies agree militant democracies are likely to start wars with aristocratic governments and non-democratic, Seung-Wang Choi states that "Israel, the United States, India, and the United Kingdom tend to initiate wars with aristocracies to preserve international law, to terminate massive breaches of human rights, or to democratize resistant dictatorship " (261). ... Mousseau states that "It seems that the democratic peace may at last have a credible explanation and that the source of the peace is not in the governing but in eco...
Economic exploitation and political manipulation by rich countries presented a good explanation for the underdeveloped condition of many Latin American countries. ... By the 1980s, however, the adoption of economic neoliberalism accompanied by political democratization stimulated the advance of new integration models. ...
Comparative Politics: The United States vs. France There are few countries in the world who have very similar electoral systems but continue to have differing amounts of political parties. These similarities and differences are best described in the relationship between France and the United States. Despite similar electoral systems, France has multiple political parties while the United States has only two major parties. I will argue that the United States needs this two party system in order to achieve a smooth flow and continuity of governmental operations, while the people of Franc...