Transitions to Democracy and Transition through Transaction

Democratization from authoritarian rule has been an important focus of scholarly interest in the 1980s. However, no typology of democratic transitions currently exists. This article introduces a typology of transitions from authoritarianism to democracy with four major types: incremental democratization, transition through rupture, transition through protracted revolutionary struggle, and transition through transaction. The remainder of the article discusses the conditions for one type of democratic transition, transition through transaction, in Spain (1975-1978). As the Spanish case suggests, the conditions for this type of transition are quite different from those required for other forms of transition. The summary discussion of the Spanish case is divided into a consideration of the conditions for the initiation of transition through transaction, and an examination of the conditions for the implementation of transition through transaction. Both sections emphasize the crucial role of elite attitudes and skill in transitions through transaction.

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Dictators and Democrats

10.23943/princeton/9780691172149.001.0001 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Stephan Haggard ◽

Robert R. Kaufman

Keyword(s):

First Century ◽

Organizational Capabilities ◽

Mass Mobilization ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

Authoritarian Rule ◽

Emerging Democracies ◽

Regime Changes ◽

Political Landscape ◽

Transitions To Democracy ◽

Multiple Routes

From the 1980s through the first decade of the twenty-first century, the spread of democracy across the developing and postcommunist worlds transformed the global political landscape. What drove these changes and what determined whether the emerging democracies would stabilize or revert to authoritarian rule? This book takes a comprehensive look at the transitions to and from democracy in recent decades. Deploying both statistical and qualitative analysis, the book engages with theories of democratic change and advocates approaches that emphasize political and institutional factors. While inequality has been a prominent explanation for democratic transitions, the book argues that its role has been limited, and elites as well as masses can drive regime change. Examining seventy-eight cases of democratic transition and twenty-five cases of reversion to autocracy since 1980, the book shows how differences in authoritarian regimes and organizational capabilities shape popular protest and elite initiatives in transitions to democracy, and how institutional weaknesses cause some democracies to fail. The determinants of democracy lie in the strength of existing institutions and the public's capacity to engage in collective action. There are multiple routes to democracy, but those growing out of mass mobilization may provide more checks on incumbents than those emerging from intra-elite bargains. Moving beyond well-known beliefs regarding regime changes, this book explores the conditions under which transitions to democracy are likely to arise.

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Virtual Legality

Comparative Political Studies ◽

10.1177/0010414001034005004 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 34 (5) ◽

pp. 555-574 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

ANTHONY W. PEREIRA

Keyword(s):

Latin America ◽

Democratic Transition ◽

Armed Forces ◽

Authoritarian Regimes ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

Military Justice ◽

Transitions To Democracy ◽

Legal Justification ◽

The Military ◽

Relevant Factors

Authoritarian regimes in Latin America frequently expanded military court jurisdiction to prosecute political opponents and protect members of the armed forces and police engaged in repression. What happened to the military courts after the recent transitions to democracy in the region? Why did some democratic transitions produce broad reform of military justice while most did not? This article first reviews contending theoretical explanations that offer answers to these questions, comparing those answers with actual outcomes in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. It then argues that the “mode of transition” perspective, which attributes variation in the extent of military justice reform to the autonomy and strength of the military in the democratic transition, best explains the outcomes in these cases. However, the military's autonomy and strength should be specified. In the area of military justice, the relevant factors are the military's propagation of an accepted legal justification for past uses of military courts and the creation of congressional support for the maintenance of existing military court jurisdiction. Both of these factors are present in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, where little or no reform of military justice took place under democratization, and absent in Argentina, where broad reform did occur.

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The Crucial Role of Leaders in Democratic Transitions

Orbis ◽

10.1016/j.orbis.2016.02.006 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 60 (2) ◽

pp. 320-323

Author(s):

Adrian A. Basora

Keyword(s):

Crucial Role ◽

Democratic Transitions

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Political economy and the ghosts of the past: revisiting the Spanish and Romanian transitions to democracy

HISTOREIN ◽

10.12681/historein.274 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 15 (1) ◽

pp. 62

Author(s):

Cornel Ban ◽

Jorge Tamames

Keyword(s):

Political Economy ◽

Democratic Transition ◽

Transition Process ◽

Balance Of Payments ◽

Political Elites ◽

International Policy ◽

The Past ◽

Transitions To Democracy ◽

Economic Constraints

Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan’s opus on democratic transition and consolidation put Spain and Romania at the extreme ends of these processes and paid little attention to the domestic and external economic constraints on the transition process. This paper interrogates these claims. It shows that in retrospect Spain looks a lot less exemplary and Romania a lot less hopeless than this iconic contribution suggested at the time. Moreover, while external economic shocks and local attempts to buffer them through social compensation shaped both transitions, Romanian governments faced balance of payments crises and international policy conditionality constraints, while their Spanish counterparts did not. This difference invites a greater appreciation of the role of political economy analyses when comparing the policy options of political elites ruling in times of democratic transition and consolidation.

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Successful and failed transitions to democracy

Political Change in the Middle East and North Africa ◽

10.3366/edinburgh/9781474415286.003.0016 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Inmaculada Szmolka

Keyword(s):

Democratic Transition ◽

Transition Process ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

Old Regime ◽

Political Actors ◽

Road Map ◽

Independence Movement ◽

Transitions To Democracy ◽

Political Forces ◽

Institutional Architecture

This chapter studies the democratic transitions following the fall of the authoritarian rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen. The chapter shows that the only successful democratisation occurred in Tunisia thanks to agreements between political actors, concessions from a dominant party and a strong and participative civil society. On the contrary, despite the Egyptian transition taking place in a similar scenario of polarisation between Islamist and secular parties as in Tunisia, Egyptian transition failed because of a lack of agreement between political forces, an exclusionary process led by the Islamists, and the interference of the army in political affairs. Democratic transition also failed in Libya, due to the lack of prior institutional architecture and of experience of party participation and political groups. Finally, the model of democratic transition that was carried out in Yemen was favourable to the achievement of democracy. It sought a broad social and political consensus for the new state before holding elections and approving a constitution, and had the involvement of the international community in the design and implementation of the transitional road map. However, empowerment of old regime elites in the transition process, the exclusion of revolutionary movements, the lack of consensus to satisfy the demands of the independence movement in the south, and antagonism between political forces and their regional backers have doomed the democratic transition to failure.

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Democratic Transitions and Political Opportunities

10.1093/oso/9780190869465.003.0002 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

María Inclán

Keyword(s):

South Africa ◽

Social Movements ◽

Social Movement ◽

El Salvador ◽

Crucial Role ◽

Democratic Transition ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

Political Opportunities

This chapter presents the theoretical arguments of the book, which come from the literatures on political opportunities and democratic transitions, in particular protracted transitions and transitions from below. The chapter first compares Mexico’s democratic transition to other democratization processes in which insurgent social movements play a crucial role, such as the cases of El Salvador and South Africa. Then it provides an analysis of the opportunities that democratic transitions may open for the mobilization, success, and survival of an insurgent social movement. Third, hypotheses contextualized to the Mexican case illustrate how these expectations may influence the development of a specific movement’s cycle of protests, negotiating success, and chances of survival within a protracted democratic transition.

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Democratic Transitions: Are There Recipes for Success?

ICR Journal ◽

10.52282/icr.v9i4.97 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 105-127

Author(s):

Deina Abdelkader

Keyword(s):

Social Movements ◽

Social Change ◽

Causal Relationship ◽

Democratic Transition ◽

Transition Theory ◽

Democratic Transitions ◽

The Masses ◽

The Military

In transitioning to democracy, rationalists assume that either the masses or the elites bring about change. This paper hypothesises that there is a causal relationship between the actors involved in social change and the end product the progress of democratic transition and whether revolution from below or from above is more likely to bring about the transition. By examining Pacting Theory as a democratic transition theory, this paper will analyse the role of the military in Egypts democratisation process. The interplay of the military powers and relinquishing those powers to a civilian government will have implications for social movements theory and the approaches to democratic transition theory.

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