Reforms, Protest, and Repression in Democratic Transition: A Hypothesis-Generating Case Study from Myanmar (2011-2015)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Buschmann
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition

Carl Schmitt as a Resource for Democratic Consolidation Studies

2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 784-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zenonas Norkus
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Democratic Consolidation ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Democratic Regime ◽  
Institutional Dimension ◽  
Effective Use

This article is a case study of the recent impeachment of President Paksas of Lithuania, exploring the heuristic value of Carl Schmitt's extremalist methodology for research on the institutional dimension of democratic consolidation. This methodology considers the performance of the democratic regime under extreme or exceptional conditions as the test of its consolidation. As presidential and semipresidential regimes are predisposed to evolve into authoritarian regimes and delegative democracies, effective use of the impeachment procedure can be considered to be the positive Schmittean test of the state of democratic consolidation for a political system involved in democratic transition.

scholarly journals Citizenship Challenges in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition: Case Study of the Rohingya-Muslim

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Suaedy ◽  
Muhammad Hafiz
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition

Reforming the Constitution; Reforming the Postcolonial State? Indigenous Peoples and Constitutional Reforms in Taiwan

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-278
Author(s):  
Jeroen VAN BEKHOVEN
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Constitutional Reform ◽  
Constitutional Theory ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Internal Colonialism ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Double Transition ◽  
Constitutional Reforms

AbstractWhen an authoritarian state starts democratic transition reforms, the constitution can facilitate such reforms. However, a little-studied role of the constitution during democratic transition is that it can back indigenous peoples’ demands. Constitutional reform during democratic transition enables indigenous peoples to challenge the state's ‘internal colonialism’. The democratic institutions and democratic rights established and guaranteed by the constitution open possibilities for indigenous peoples to push for constitutional reforms that promote ‘internal decolonization’. This means that indigenous peoples are empowered and that their interests are protected. For indigenous peoples, a ‘double transition’ can thus take place: from authoritarianism to democracy, and from internal colonialism to internal decolonization. A case study of the constitutional reforms in Taiwan confirms that the constitution can guarantee indigenous peoples’ participation in constitutional reform. But in Taiwan, this involvement has not led to meaningful incorporation of indigenous peoples in the constitution, and it has not fully promoted double transition. The case study highlights serious problems for indigenous peoples to realize strong constitutional reforms. This article provides a foundation for additional research on constitutional change and indigenous peoples. This is critical to advance constitutional theory and to ascertain whether and how constitutions can give indigenous peoples a voice.

The Tatmadaw Legacy and Beyond

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-51
Author(s):  
Fabio Armao
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factors ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Transition Theory ◽  
Stress Tests ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
The Social

The ongoing democratisation process in Myanmar represents one of the most relevant ‘stress tests’ for the democratic transition theory. This theory actually considers stateness as a prerequisite for democracy; and, consequently, concentrates mainly on the mode of progression of the state from dictatorship to representative government. We assume, on the contrary, that, particularly after 1989, the very idea of stateness is being questioned more and more (and not only in developing countries). This paper does not intend to add original data relative to Myanmar’s recent history. It rather aims to shed some new light on Myanmar’s democratisation process, approaching the issue as a specific case-study of democratic transition affected by clustered sovereignty. The introduction will attempt to explain the main methodological prerequisites of the paper. The article will then analyse the three main risk factors affecting the democratisation process in Myanmar: (1) the (in)ability to neutralise the autonomous centres of power equipped with means of coercion and return them to a shared political sphere; (2) the (in)ability to integrate different intra-group networks in the shared political sphere; (3) the (in)ability to eliminate or at least reduce the social inequalities, detaching them from the shared political sphere.

scholarly journals Citizenship Challenges in Myanmar’s Democratic Transition: Case Study of the Rohingya-Muslim

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Suaedy ◽  
Muhammad Hafiz
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition

scholarly journals WEAK STATE INSTITUTIONS AND INSURGENCY ORIGIN IN IRAQ: A CASE STUDY OF MALIKI’S ERA

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (02) ◽  
pp. 45-60
Author(s):  
Muqaddas Khan
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
The State ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Weak State ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
American Intervention ◽  
The Relationship

Emergence of Islamic State (IS) in Iraq has forged havoc in country. Unlike other radicalist groups, IS is the product of socio-political and institutional nuisance, rather to be ignited by ethno-religious fracas. This paper is aimed to analyse the relationship between state institutions and society; how weak state institutions facilitate the genesis of insurgency; and how the institutional malaise created grounds for insurgency to infiltrate in Iraq? The American intervention of Iraq eroded the state vital institutions. Henceforth, the democratic transition under Maliki’s administration, despite of establishing national unity, hatched ethno-sectarian cleavage in society. Maliki’s proclivities of centralization and immature culture of political parties in running the affairs of parliament alienated the Sunni community in Iraq. Moreover, the American perception of Sunni community under Saddam Hussein further inflamed the communal discord. Such bias culminated mass exodus on the pattern of communal and sectarian bases from Bagdad to other regions of the country. Once, the ground was set for resentment against other sects, ethnicities and state, then it was easy for radicalist groups to exploit the deprived communities accordingly.

The Persistence of Turkey's Majoritarian System of Government

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ceren Lord
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
Institutional Evolution ◽  
Consensus Democracy ◽  
Institutional Persistence ◽  
The Face ◽  
Key Dimensions

AbstractThis study uses the case study of a ‘transitioning’ country, Turkey, in exploring institutional endurance and change. In this context it uses the framework of Arend Lijphart's majority and consensus democracy in order to uncover patterns of institutional evolution and persistence which have implications for the nature of its democratic transition. This is achieved through a step-by-step exploration of the key dimensions of democracy discussed by Lijphart. This empirical study seeks to demonstrate that despite the introduction of anti-majoritarian institutions in 1961, Turkey has never consolidated consensus democracy. Instead, since 1982 the trend has been a move towards a system more in line with the majoritarian regime established under the 1924 constitution. As such, the study offers a useful case study of the dynamics of political transformation in the face of institutional persistence, suggesting a need for tracing the history if we are to identify institutional patterns in contrast to the more generalized democratization frameworks.

scholarly journals Democratic Transition Research: From Western to Post-Soviet East European Scholarship

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Oleinikova
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Structure Approach ◽  
East European ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Transition Research ◽  
Communist Government

This paper is the first of its kind to provide a comparative overview of Western (Western European and North American) and post-Soviet East European transition theories and literature that can be used to understand specifics of post-Soviet transition in Eastern Europe. Bridging the two broad theoretical traditions of East and West, and taking Ukraine as a case study, this literature review adds to the transition literature a discussion that relates to the emergence and interplay of structure and agency theories since the 1950s. In particular, the review sets out the various ways in which the transition from post-Communist government to democracy has been theorized, from a structuralist to an agency-structure approach. Meanwhile, it puts new wind into the sails of the idea that the interplay of structure and agency is more relevant to understanding the transition in Ukraine—reflecting similar dynamics in other post-Communist Eastern European states. This review is a good starting source for those who want to understand the roots of democratic transition research and theories.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document