25. East Asia

2018 ◽  
pp. 401-420
Author(s):  
Doh Chull Shin ◽  
Rollin F. Tusalem
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
East Asian Region ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Transitions To Democracy

This chapter examines the processes of democratization in East Asia over the past two decades. It first provides a historical background on transitions to democracy in the region before assessing the extent to which third-wave democracies have consolidated by appraising the quality of their performances. Analyses of Freedom House and the World Bank data show that the East Asian region has been slow in responding to the surging wave of global democratization in terms of not only transforming authoritarian regimes into electoral democracies, but also consolidating electoral democracies into well-functioning liberal democracies. The Asian Barometer surveys, on the other hand, reveal that the mass citizenries of China and Singapore endorse their current regime as a well-functioning democracy, and are not much in favour of democratic regime change in their country. The chapter concludes with a discussion of prospects for democratic regime change in China and Singapore.

23. East Asia

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doh Chull Shin ◽  
Rollin F. Tusalem
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
East Asian Region ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Transitions To Democracy

This chapter examines the processes of democratization in East Asia over the past two decades. It first provides a historical background on transitions to democracy in the region before assessing the extent to which third-wave democracies have consolidated by appraising the quality of their performances. Analyses of Freedom House and the World Bank data show that the East Asian region has been slow in responding to the surging wave of global democratization in terms of not only transforming authoritarian regimes into electoral democracies, but also consolidating electoral democracies into well-functioning liberal democracies. The Asian Barometer surveys, on the other hand, reveal that the mass citizenries of China and Singapore endorse their current regime as a well-functioning democracy, and are not much in favour of democratic regime change in their country. The chapter concludes with a discussion of prospects for democratic regime change in China and Singapore.

Cincinnatus

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozan O. Varol
Keyword(s):  
Regime Change ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Absolute Power ◽  
Second Best ◽  
Turbulent Transition ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
Civilian Leaders ◽  
Elected Leaders ◽  
The Military

This chapter concludes the book. To summarize, in a democratic coup, militaries topple a dictator, assume absolute power during a temporary period, provide a steady hand during a turbulent transition, establish democratic procedures, and hand over power to elected leaders. Democratic does not mean unproblematic. All transitions to democracy, whether led by civilians or the military, are turbulent events and require a rethinking of our idealistic notions of success in moments of regime change. Ideally, of course, civilian, not military, leaders would spearhead democratic regime change. But civilian leaders are often unable to shoulder the momentous task of overthrowing an entrenched dictator without the help of the domestic military. Often the only hope for democracy is to turn the domestic military against the very dictatorship it’s tasked to defend. In our imperfect world, the second best may be the best we can do.

The Fourth Wave of DemocracyandDictatorship: Noncooperative Transitions in the Postcommunist World

2002 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael McFaul
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Old Regime ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
New States ◽  
Distribution Of Power

The transition from communism in Europe and the former Soviet Union has only sometimes produced a transition to democracy. Since the crumbling of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, most of the twenty-eight new states have abandoned communism, but only nine of these have entered the ranks of liberal democracies. The remaining majority of new postcommunist states are various shades of dictatorships or unconsolidated “transitional regimes.” This article seeks to explain why some states abandoned communism for democracy while others turned to authoritarian rule. In endorsing actorcentric approaches that have dominated analyses of the third wave of democratization, this argument nonetheless offers an alternative set of causal paths from ancien regime to new regime that can account for both democracy and dictatorship as outcomes. Situations ofunequaldistributions of power produced the quickest and most stable transitions from communist rule. In countries with asymmetrical balances of power, the regime to emerge depends almost entirely on the ideological orientation of the most powerful. In countries where democrats enjoyed a decisive power advantage, democracy emerged. Conversely, in countries in which dictators maintained a decisive power advantage, dictatorship emerged. In between these two extremes were countries in which the distribution of power between the old regime and its challengers was relatively equal. Rather than producing stalemate, compromise, and parted transitions to democracy, however, such situations in the postcommunist world resulted in protracted confrontation between relatively balanced powers. The regimes that emerged from these modes of transitions are not the most successful democracies but rather are unconsolidated, unstable, partial democracies.

Inequality and Transitions to Democracy

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Haggard ◽  
Robert R. Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Sample Period ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
The Third ◽  
Transitions To Democracy ◽  
Distributive Conflict ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Universe

This chapter explores the relationship between inequality, distributive conflict, and regime change during the Third Wave of democratic transitions (1980–2008). It first provides an overview of the theory and existing quantitative findings on the link between inequality and democratic transitions before discussing the results obtained by using an empirical approach that selects all transitions in the relevant sample period identified in the Polity and CGV datasets. It shows that about half of the transitions analyzed are the result of the mobilized de facto power envisioned by both the sociological and rational choice distributive conflict theories. Cases of democratization driven by distributive conflict constituted only slightly more than half of the universe of transitions during the period, and neither transitions in general nor those driven by distributive conflict were correlated with economic inequality. The emergence of democracy in the advanced industrial states stemmed in part from fundamental changes in class structures.

Kantian Project of Perpetual Peace in the Context of Modern Ethical and Political Concepts of War

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-100
Author(s):  
Arseniy D. Kumankov
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Just War ◽  
Just War Theory ◽  
Historical Background ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Peace Treaty ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Democratic Peace Theory ◽  
Perpetual Peace

The article considers the modern meaning of Kant’s doctrine of war. The author examines the context and content of the key provisions of Kant’s concept of perpetual peace. The author also reviews the ideological affinity between Kant and previous authors who proposed to build alliances of states as a means of preventing wars. It is noted that the French revolution and the wars caused by it, the peace treaty between France and Prussia served as the historical background for the conceptualization of Kant’s project. In the second half of the 20th century, there is a growing attention to Kant’s ethical and political philosophy. Theorists of a wide variety of political and ethical schools, (cosmopolitanism, internationalism, and liberalism) pay attention to Kant’s legacy and relate their own concepts to it. Kant’s idea of war is reconsidered by Michael Doyle, Jürgen Habermas, Ulrich Beck, Mary Kaldor, Brian Orend. Thus, Doyle tracks democratic peace theory back to Kant’s idea of the spread of republicanism. According to democratic peace theory, liberal democracies do not solve conflict among themselves by non-military methods. Habermas, Beck, Kaldor appreciate Kant as a key proponent of cosmopolitanism. For them, Kant’s project is important due to notion of supranational forms of cooperation. They share an understanding that peace will be promoted by an allied authority, which will be “governing without government” and will take responsibility for the functioning of the principles of pacification of international relations. Orend’s proves that Kant should be considered as a proponent of the just war theory. In addition, Orend develops a new area in just war theory – the concept of ius post bellum – and justifies regime change as the goal of just war.

Coleridge and Contemplation

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Historical Background ◽  
New Developments ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Original Essays ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Romantic Era ◽  
Renaissance Man ◽  
Dynamic Quality ◽  
Philosophical Writings

In his philosophical writings, Coleridge increasingly developed his thinking about imagination, a symbolizing precursor to contemplation, to a theory of contemplation itself, which for him occurs in its purest form as a manifestation of ‘Reason’. Coleridge is a particularly challenging figure because he was a thinker in process, and something of an omnimath, a Renaissance man of the Romantic era. The dynamic quality of his thinking, the ‘dark fluxion’ pursued but ultimately ‘unfixable by thought’, and his extensive range of interests make essential an approach that is philosophical yet also multi-disciplinary. This is the first collection of essays to be written mainly by philosophers and intellectual historians on a wide range of Coleridge’s philosophical writings. With a foreword by Baroness Mary Warnock, and original essays on Coleridge and Contemplation by prominent philosophers such as Sir Roger Scruton, David E. Cooper, Michael McGhee, and Andy Hamilton, this volume provides a stimulating collection of insights and explorations into what Britain’s foremost philosopher-poet had to say about the contemplation that he considered to be the highest of the human mental powers. The essays by philosophers are supported by new developments in philosophically minded criticism from Coleridge scholars in English departments, including Jim Mays, Kathleen Wheeler, and James Engell. They approach Coleridge as an energetic yet contemplative thinker concerned with the intuition of ideas and the processes of cultivation in self and society. Other essays, from intellectual historians and theologians, clarify the historical background, and ‘religious musings’, of Coleridge’s thought regarding contemplation.

Public Awareness and the Behavior of Unpopular Courts

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jay N. Krehbiel
Keyword(s):  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Public Support ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
Institutional Stakeholders

Abstract Scholars have long debated the positive and negative consequences of an aware public for the quality of governance in modern liberal democracies. This article extends this debate to the context of constitutional review by exploring how public awareness can limit the effective exercise of review by courts lacking strong public support. Incorporating aspects of both the legitimacy and separation of powers theories on judicial power, the author argues that public awareness weakens the efficacy of such unpopular courts by creating an electoral incentive for governments to defy adverse rulings, even when doing so may lead to punishment from other institutional stakeholders. The article develops a simple formal model that identifies how and under what conditions public awareness can influence an unpopular court's decision making. An analysis of rulings issued by the Court of Justice of the European Union finds support for the model's empirical implications.

The State and Democratization: The United States in Comparative Perspective

2004 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-210 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCISCO E. GONZÁLEZ ◽  
DESMOND KING
Keyword(s):  
American Exceptionalism ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Third Wave ◽  
Liberal Democracies ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
American Experience ◽  
The Common ◽  
Spatio Temporal

In this article we defend the importance of the concept of ‘stateness’ in scholarly understanding of political democratization. We argue that because processes of political democratization in different spatio-temporal settings often share important similarities they are therefore comparable. We investigate this proposition by comparing the process of American political democratization with those of other liberal democracies, old and new. We review extant accounts of the historical process of American democratization – including those addressing American exceptionalism, class structures, multiple traditions, social movements, and international pressures – before presenting an alternative comparative account based on the idea of stateness. Attention to stateness problems defined along legal, bureaucratic and ideological dimensions and derived from both the classic Weberian perspective on the state and the more recent ‘third wave’ of democratization theory help to place the long American experience of democratization in comparative perspective. This finding illuminates some of the common political challenges in the construction of liberal democracies, old and new.

ASSESSMENT OF UKRAINE'S HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT IN WORLD RATINGS IN CONDITIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryna Nochka ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
World Economic Forum ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
World Economic ◽  
Capital Development ◽  
The University

The article is devoted to the analysis tools for assessing human capital based on world rankings in the context of sustainable development. The most famous world rankings of human capital, studied by such international organizations as the World Bank, the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, the University of Groningen in collaboration with the University of California at Davis and others, are considered. Quantifying human capital as the economic and social value of a skill set is measured through an index. Each organization makes measurements according to its own method. The application of different criteria and indicators for assessing human capital at the macroeconomic level is analyzed. The considered assessment methodologies are overwhelmingly based on statistical approaches. Analyzed the position of Ukraine in the world rankings in recent years in dynamics. It has been confirmed that these international ratings can be considered as a reflection of the state of human capital in Ukraine. Revealed quite high rating positions of Ukraine in comparison with other countries. The results allow us to conclude that there is insufficient government funding for the development of human capital. It is concluded that Ukraine needs to improve the quality of human capital as a leading factor in increasing the efficiency of the country's economy in the context of sustainable development. The study showed that the use of high-quality, highly qualified human capital leads to an improvement in the country's position in the world rankings.

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