DOCSLIB.ORG

Bringing Back Transitology P

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Bringing Back Transitology P Research Series 01.2012 - Newidea 13 - 2013 GCSP avenue de la Paix 7bis Bringing Back Transitology P. O. Box 1295 CH - 1211 Geneva 1 T + 41 22 906 16 00 Democratisation in the 21st Century F + 41 22 906 16 49 [email protected] www.gcsp.ch Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou and Timothy D. Sisk Impartial, Inclusive, Influential The opinions and views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the position of the Swiss authorities or the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. Copyright © Geneva Centre for Security Policy, 2013 Bringing Back Transitology Democratisation in the 21st Century Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou and Timothy D. Sisk GCSP Geneva Papers — Research Series n° 13, November 2013 BRINGING BACK TRANSITOLOGY The Geneva Centre for Security Policy The Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) is an international centre for secu- rity policy based in Geneva. An international foundation with over forty member states, it offers courses for civil servants, diplomats and military officers from all over the world. Through research, workshops and conferences it provides an internationally recognised forum for dialogue on timely issues relating to security and peace. The Geneva Papers and l’Esprit de Genève With its vocation for peace, Geneva is the city where international organisations, NGOs, and the academic community, working together, have the possibility of creating the essential conditions for debate and concrete action. The Geneva Papers intend to serve the same goal by promoting a platform for constructive and substantive dialogue. Geneva Papers – Research Series The Geneva Papers – Research Series is a set of publications offered by the GCSP. It complements the Geneva Papers – Conference Series that was launched in 2008, whose purpose is to reflect on the main issues and debates of an event organised by the GCSP. The Geneva Papers – Research Series seeks to analyse international security issues through an approach that combines policy analysis and academic rigor. It encour- ages reflection on new and traditional security issues that are relevant to GCSP training, such as the globalisation of security, new threats to international secu- rity, conflict trends and conflict management, transatlantic and European security, the role of international institutions in security governance and human security. The Research Series offers innovative analyses, case studies, policy prescriptions and critiques, to encourage global discussion. Drafts are peer-reviewed by the GCSP Review Committee. All Geneva Papers are available online at www.gcsp.ch/Resources-Publica- tions/Publications For further information, please contact : [email protected] Copyright © Geneva Centre for Security Policy, 2013 BRINGING BACK TRANSITOLOGY Table of Contents About the Authors ................................................................................................4 Executive Summary..............................................................................................7 Introduction: Why should Transitology be “Brought Back In”? ..................................................9 I. Transitions toward Democracy: Taking the Long View ........................................................................................ 15 II. Critiques of Transitology ............................................................................... 19 III. Democratic Transition: Founding Moment and Forward Movement ........................................................ 26 IV. Conclusion: Promises and Limits of Transitology .................................................................. 32 GCSP Geneva Papers — Research Series n°13 3 About the authors Dr Mohammad-Mahmoud Ould Mohamedou is the Head of the Regional Capacity Development Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Dr Mohamedou was previously the Associate Director of the Harvard University Programme on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research, former Foreign Minister of Mauritania, Director of Research of the International Council on Human Rights Policy and Research Associate at the Ralph Bunche Institute on the United Nations in New York. His works include Understanding Al Qaeda – Changing War and Global Politics (Pluto, 2011), Contre-Croisade – Le 11 Septembre et le Retournement du Monde (L’Harmattan, 2011) and Iraq and the Second Gulf War – Statebuilding and Regime Security (Austin and Winfeld, 2002). He contributed chapters to, notably, An International History of Terrorism (Routledge, 2013), Violent Non-State Actors in Contemporary World Politics (Columbia University Press, 2010), Rethinking the Foreign Policies of the Global South (Lynne Reinner, 2003) and Governance and Democratisation in the Middle East (Avebury, 1998). Dr Mohamedou earned a Ph.D. in Political Science (foreign policy, comparative politics) from the City University of New York Graduate School (best dissertation of the year award) in 1996 and was a post-doctoral Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University in 1996-1997. His research focuses on transnational terrorism, transformation of war, political transitions and statebuilding. Dr Timothy D. Sisk is Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, and faculty in the Sié Chéou Kang Centre for International Security and Diplomacy at the School. Dr Sisk serves as an Associate Fellow of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He is the author, notably, of Statebuilding – Consolidating Peace after Civil War (Polity, 2013), International Mediation in Civil Wars – Bargaining with Bullets (Routledge, 2009) and Democratisation in South Africa – The Elusive Social Contract (Princeton University Press, 1995), as well as the editor of From War to Democracy – Dilemmas of Peacebuilding (with Anna Jarstad, Cambridge University Press, 2008) and The Dilemmas of Statebuilding – Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (with Roland Paris, Routledge 2009). Prior to joining the University of Denver in 1998, Dr Sisk was a Programme Officer in the Grant Programme of the United States Institute of Peace in Washington and, prior to that, a staff member for a United States Senator. Dr Sisk earned a Ph.D. “with 4 GCSP Geneva Papers — Research Series n° 13 distinction” in political science (comparative politics, research methods) from The George Washington University in 1992, and an MA in International Journalism (1984) and a BA in Foreign Service and German (1982) from Baylor University. His research focuses on the nexus between democracy and governance and the management of conflict in deeply divided societies, especially those emerging from civil war. GCSP Geneva Papers — Research Series n°13 5 BRINGING BACK TRANSITOLOGY 6 GCSP Geneva Papers — Research Series n° 13 BRINGING BACK TRANSITOLOGY BRINGING BACK TRANSITOLOGY Executive Summary Can political and socioeconomic transitions be systematised beyond their own contexts and specificities? In examining political liberalisation attempts taking place in the early twenty-first century, notably those leading up to and in the wake of the Arab Spring, dominant perspectives have featured a conspicuous absence of the literature on transitions to democracy of the past forty or so years. For all its insights and shortcomings, the framework of transitology (a body of literature that has comparatively and through case-study analysis exam- ined common patterns, sequences, crises and outcomes of transitional periods) has been largely eschewed. The combined effect of the emphasis on regional narratives and immediate political dynamics has stripped the understanding of a new generation of political transitions of a deeper background of transitology which carries much relevance, albeit one in need of updating in light of recent experiences. This essay argues that it is time to bring transitology back in. That is, to re-assert, review and revise, and develop further theories, concepts and approaches to understanding turbulent transitions in countries seeking to emerge from autocracy. Policy analysis to assess the nature and lasting consequences of several current waves of social and political upheavals is lacking firm framework guidance. As a result, the understanding of momentous transformations is impres- sionistic, formulaic, short term and unscientific. It is much too early to conclude that the Arab Spring has ‘failed’; indeed, we maintain that in the course of transi- tion from the autocratic regimes of the past, new attributes of democratic politics are slowly emerging: citizenship, open debate and public demands for account- ability. Yet democratisation processes can be studied regardless of whether they actually arrive in a consolidated democracy as an outcome. Focusing on the common attributes of the democratisation process across a wide variety of experience, the transitology perspective emerged from analysis of the transitions since 1974 and broadened more extensively into the post-Cold War period. The literature addresses the pathways of transition, including likely triggering events, collective action in social movements and patterns of revolt, regime repression and escalating political violence. Democratisation theory emphasises the importance of strategic interactions between elites and citizens in complex processes that involve revisiting the basic rules of the political game. Such processes are
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Mirrors of Modernization: the American Reflection in Turkey
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey Begum Adalet University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the History Commons, and the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Adalet, Begum, "Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1186. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1186 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1186 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Mirrors of Modernization: The American Reflection in urkT ey Abstract This project documents otherwise neglected dimensions entailed in the assemblage and implementations of political theories, namely their fabrication through encounters with their material, local, and affective constituents. Rather than emanating from the West and migrating to their venues of application, social scientific theories are fashioned in particular sites where political relations can be staged and worked upon. Such was the case with modernization theory, which prevailed in official and academic circles in the United States during the early phases of the Cold War. The theory bore its imprint on a series of developmental and infrastructural projects in Turkey, the beneficiary of Marshall Plan funds and academic exchange programs and one of the theory's most important models. The manuscript scrutinizes the corresponding sites of elaboration for the key indices of modernization: the capacity for empathy, mobility, and hospitality. In the case of Turkey the sites included survey research, the implementation of a highway network, and the expansion of the tourism industry through landmarks such as the Istanbul Hilton Hotel.
    [Show full text]
  • A Case of Democratic Regression
    Volume 6 │ Issue 1 │ 2021 The Republic of Turkey: A Case of Democratic Regression Kristen Ziccarelli Christopher Newport University Virginia Zeta Chapter Vol. 6(1), 2021 Title: The Republic of Turkey: A Case of Democratic Regression DOI: 10.21081/ax0286 ISSN: 2381-800X Keywords: democracy, Turkey, government, freedom This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Author contact information is available from [email protected] or [email protected] Aletheia—The Alpha Chi Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship • This publication is an online, peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary undergraduate journal, whose mission is to promote high quality research and scholarship among undergraduates by showcasing exemplary work. • Submissions can be in any basic or applied field of study, including the physical and life sciences, the social sciences, the humanities, education, engineering, and the arts. • Publication in Aletheia will recognize students who excel academically and foster mentor/mentee relationships between faculty and students. • In keeping with the strong tradition of student involvement in all levels of Alpha Chi, the journal will also provide a forum for students to become actively involved in the writing, peer review, and publication process. • More information can be found at www.alphachihonor.org/aletheia. Questions to the editors may be directed to [email protected] or [email protected]. Alpha Chi National College Honor Society invites to membership juniors, seniors, and graduate students from all disciplines in the top ten percent of their classes. Active on nearly 300 campuses nationwide, chapters induct approximately 10,000 students annually. Since the Society’s founding in 1922, Alpha Chi members have dedicated themselves to “making scholarship effective for good.” Alpha Chi is a member in good standing of the Association of College Honor Societies, the only national accrediting body for collegiate honor societies.
    [Show full text]
  • Hagop Kevorkian Center 2015/2016 Review
    HAGOP KEVORKIAN CENTER REVIEW 2015/2016 STAFF Director Helga Tawil-Souri Associate Director Greta Scharnweber Director of Graduate Studies Joanne Nucho Faculty Fellow Begum Adalet Program Coordinator Arthur Starr 2015–2016 Outreach Administrator Diana Shin Administrative Aide Vitandi Singh Writer-in-Residence Fall 2015 Nancy Kricorian Human Rights Activist-in-Residence Spring 2016 Sarah Leah Whitson Hagop Kevorkian Center NYU 50 Washington Square South, 4th Floor New York, NY 10012 http://neareaststudies.as.nyu.edu #nyuKevo The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at NYU is a Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) for modern Middle Eastern Studies as named by the United States Department of Education. NRC support is essential to the Center’s graduate program (area and language studies) Editor Greta Scharnweber, Sabahat Zakariya and bolsters outreach programs to the NYU academic community, local educators, media and culture workers as well as the general public. Title VI funding, through its Foreign Language and Layout and Design Melissa Runstrom & Josh Anderson Area Studies (FLAS) fellowships, also enables important opportunities for NYU graduate students Cover Design The Goggles (Paul Shoebridge, Michael Simons, Mika Senda) to intensively study the languages of the Middle East and South Asia (including Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Persian, Turkish and Urdu). Copyright 2016. All rights reserved. Contents Letter from the Director Letter from the Director 5 It is a pleasure to celebrate the Kevorkian Center’s achievements by look- crew! Our indefatigable Associate Director, Greta Scharnweber, continues ing back at another great year. This HK Review also marks the mid-point of to make all aspects of what we do possible, and does so with excellence Scholars the Center’s 50th year, a milestone that we began honoring in Spring 2016 and affability.
    [Show full text]
  • Curriculum Vitae Susan Eva Eckstein
    July 2010 CURRICULUM VITAE SUSAN EVA ECKSTEIN OFFICE ADDRESS: Department of Sociology 100 Cummington St. Boston University Boston, MA 02215 PHONE:(617) 353-2591 FAX: (617) 353-4837 EMAIL: [email protected] EDUCATION Ph.D., Sociology, Columbia University Institute for Latin American Studies. B.A., Sociology, Minor in Anthropology, Beloit College PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2008-present Lecturer to Professor, Department of Sociology, Boston University Professor, International Relations, Boston University 1995 Adjunct Professor of Sociology, Boston College 1989 Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Columbia University 1974 Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Tutor, Social Relations Department, Harvard University RESEARCH APPOINTMENTS Boston University Affiliate, Latin American Studies Program Affiliate, Women's Studies Program Affiliate, African Studies Program Associate, Department of Political Science Affiliate, Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future Associate, Global Governance and Development Program, Department of International Relations. Other Associate, David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, Harvard University Honorary Research Fellow, Center for International 2 Affairs and Radcliffe Institute Research Fellow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Center for International Affairs; and Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University Assistant to Director, Bureau of Social Science Research, Washington, D.C. Research Assistant, Columbia University with Professors Immanuel Wallerstein, Terence Hopkins, and Theodore Caplow Fieldwork 1990-present Cuba: research on post revolutionary developments and on the Cuban diaspora 2000-present Miami and Union City, NJ: research on Cuban/Cuban American transnational ties and transformations 1997-2001 Boston: research on suburban ethnicity and volunteerism 1970s & 1980s Bolivia (4 Visits): Research on outcomes of the Bolivian Revolution, including agrarian reform and the political economy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of the Kemalist Modernization for Modernization Theory
    Saylan, İ. & Özdikmenli Çelikoğlu, İ. (2021). The significance of the Kemalist modernization for modernization theory. Uludağ University Faculty of Arts and Sciences Journal of Social Sciences, 22(40), 663-703. DOI: 10.21550/sosbilder.719120 Research Article ------------------------------------------------------ THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KEMALIST MODERNIZATION FOR MODERNIZATION THEORY İbrahim SAYLAN İlkim ÖZDİKMENLİ ÇELİKOĞLU Sending Date: 13 April / Nisan 2020 Acceptance Date: 16 July / Temmuz 2020 ABSTRACT Modernization theory, which dominated academic studies from the early 1950s until the late 1970s, attributed a “special place” to the Turkish case among many other non-Western countries, with a special emphasis on the Kemalist modernization of the Early Republican Period. This paper seeks to explore the reasons for Turkey’s special place and the ways Kemalist modernization is positioned vis-a-vis other non-Western countries by tracking the scholarly works by Walt Rostow, Dankwart Rustow, Daniel Lerner, Bernard Lewis and Shmuel Eisenstadt. Without ignoring the particular reflections of disciplinary perspectives they have, their analyses of the Turkish case are investigated with a focus on a number of common themes. Thus, this study does not only shed light on the historical origins of the so-called “Turkish model”, it also seeks to provide a basis for future studies in making a more empirically grounded critique of modernization theory’s analysis of the Turkish case. Key words: modernization theory, Kemalist modernization, Turkish model, development, developing countries An earlier version of this study is presented at the 17th Annual International Conference on Politics and International Studies, ATINER, Athens, 17-20 June 2019. Assist. Prof. Dr., Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business Administration Department of International Relations, İzmir / TURKEY, [email protected] Assist.
    [Show full text]
  • Presidents' Files: Horowitz
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Finding Aids Archives and Special Collections 2014 Graduate School and University Center Archives Finding Aid - Record Group V-C: Presidents' Files: Horowitz Graduate Center Library, CUNY How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_arch/7 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] ARCHIVES V-C PRESIDENTS’ FILES HOROWITZ Note: President Horowitz’s papers were transferred to the Archives in several segments, in January, July, and September 2005, and work on them was begun in November of that year. They comprised 14 cardboard boxes of about one cubic foot each and four standard five-drawer metal filing cabinets totaling approximately 50 cubic feet. That work was completed in March 2008; but additions were received from the Office of Public Affairs and the President’s Office from time to time during the rest of 2008 and the spring and summer of 2009 and from the Provost’s Office in 2010. Still more was received from Horowitz in June 2011 and from the President’s office in 2012 and 2013. All these additions have been integrated into the existing files. To the extent possible the papers have been processed in the same way as those of her predecessors, specifically in the selection of folder titles. Horowitz often used the back of pages of typescript for new notes, drafts of new papers, informal correspondence and the like.
    [Show full text]
  • The Idea of Macro-Communal Space and Its Applicability to the Ethno-Complex Societies of the Post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia
    e-cadernos CES 19 | 2013 Novos olhares sobre o espaço pós-soviético The Idea of Macro-Communal Space and its Applicability to the Ethno-Complex Societies of the Post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia Tiago Ferreira Lopes Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/eces/1575 DOI: 10.4000/eces.1575 ISSN: 1647-0737 Publisher Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra Electronic reference Tiago Ferreira Lopes, « The Idea of Macro-Communal Space and its Applicability to the Ethno- Complex Societies of the Post-Soviet Caucasus and Central Asia », e-cadernos CES [Online], 19 | 2013, Online since 01 June 2013, connection on 19 April 2019. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ eces/1575 ; DOI : 10.4000/eces.1575 e-cadernos CES, 19, 2013: 109-131 THE IDEA OF MACRO-COMMUNAL SPACE AND ITS APPLICABILITY TO THE ETHNO- COMPLEX SOCIETIES OF THE POST-SOVIET CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA TIAGO FERREIRA LOPES FACULTY OF ECONOMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, KIRIKKALE UNIVERSITY, TURKEY INSTITUTO DO ORIENTE, INSTITUTO SUPERIOR DE CIÊNCIAS SOCIAIS E POLÍTICAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA, PORTUGAL Abstract: Rustow defined National Unity as the sole prerequisite to a transition towards democracy. Later, a second prerequisite was introduced: the Modern State. Despite the importance of these two prerequisites, there is a need to introduce a third prerequisite to encompass ethno-complex societies. It is difficult to achieve National Unity in ethno-complex settings, because societies are highly fragmented and the several “fragments” do not perceive themselves as equal. In this regard, macro-communal spaces act as a harmonizing pre-chamber in which similarities are enhanced but differences are not forgotten.
    [Show full text]
  • Checklists, Frameworks, and Boolean Analysis
    Chapter 4 Inductive Approaches: Checklists, Frameworks, and Boolean Analysis On some level, we political scientists think we understand some things about the causes of democratization; we share a conventional wisdom. However, the conventional wisdom is fragmented: it consists of dozens of propositions about the conditions that favor democracy. Although there is a core of propositions that most scholars consider credible, this conventional wisdom is poorly integrated. We tend to consider each proposition in isolation, standing or falling on its own, without affecting our belief in other propositions. Admittedly, there are lumps of related propositions here and there, but for the most part it is a thin soup. The conventional wisdom is not, therefore, an integrated theory of interwoven propositions. In this sense, our understanding of democratization resembles a checklist: a list of independent, unconnected items. Checklists are useful for reminding us about all the varied factors that may be important. Unfortunately, just as a grocery list is not a short story, a checklist is not a coherent and integrated explanation. There is no official screening committee that certifies that a proposition is generally true and rigorously supported before it comes to be a part of the conventional wisdom. Rather, our "wisdom" is just that: a matter of convention. Whatever ideas many scholars have found convincing at one time or another come to be part of what we think we know. Because different scholars are convinced by different things, the conventional wisdom is a hodgepodge of ideas originating from diverse sources. To be sure, some propositions have survived repeated testing in large samples using the most rigorous techniques in our toolkits.
    [Show full text]
  • Is It Safe for Transitologists & Consolidologists To
    IS IT SAFE FOR TRANSITOLOGISTS & CONSOLIDOLOGISTS TO TRAVEL TO THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA? Philippe C. Schmitter Stanford University The wave of democratization that began so unexpectedly in Portugal has not merely increased the number of attempted regime changes since 1974, it has distributed neo-democracies over a much wider surface of the globe. No continent or geo-cultural area, no matter how "peculiar" or "backward" or "remote," has been completely immune from the effects of the wave -- although there seem to be two prominent "islands" that have not, so far, been submerged by it: the Middle East and South-East Asia. This political "Tsunami" has been accompanied (somewhat belatedly) by the gradual and unobtrusive development of two proto-sciences: transitology and consolidology. The claim of these embryonic sub-disciplines of comparative politics is that by applying a universalistic set of assumptions, concepts and hypotheses, they together can explain and, hopefully, help to guide the way from an autocratic to a democratic regime. The initial "tentative conclusions" of transitology were limited to a small number of cases within a relatively homogenous cultural area: Southern Europe and Latin America.1 With the subsequent expansion in the number of transitions and the extension of democratization to other cultural areas, the founders of these two sub-disciplines and their acolytes have had to confront the issue of "conceptual stretching", i.e. of the applicability of their propositions and assumptions to peoples and places never imagined initially.2 Nowhere has the resistance to their pseudo- scientific pretensions been greater than among North American area specialists; hence, the subtitle of this article which invites reflection on whether it is safe for transitologiists and consolidologists tourists to travel to the world of Islam with their allegedly universal and scientific concepts.
    [Show full text]
  • International Law, Economic Development, and Democracy by James Kraska
    International Law, Economic Development, and Democracy by James Kraska INTRODUCTION The relationship between democracy and development is extremely important. This essay rejects the widely accepted orthodoxy of the international law of economic development: democracy creates instability that tends to hold back development. This school of thought holds that only after an economy has reached a critical threshold of development is it prudent to introduce the destabilizing influence of democracy. Instead, this essay suggests that even for the very poorest nations, promotion of democracy is the best way to achieve rapid economic development. This issue drives various approaches to global development, shaping everything from the structure of world trade, to strategies of development assistance, and to the construction of global norms at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Even the poorest nations improve through early democratization; failure to promote democracy is the single greatest cause of underdevelopment in the Third World. As a result, decades of forfeited progress in economic growth, environmental protection, and human rights have impoverished and shortened the lives of millions of people. The first section of this essay reviews the origins of the prevailing orthodoxy of economic development, which is derived from traditional thinking within political economy. From there, the essay critiques the application of this orthodoxy and introduces fresh narratives and empirical perspectives on economic development grounded in human freedom and democracy. The essay concludes with a call for practitioners of international law to embrace the emerging norm of democratic economic development. Since World War II, world development has been captive to an orthodox approach shaped by modernization theory, which celebrates the virtues of authoritarian government.
    [Show full text]
  • THE CONCEPT of TRANSITION in TRANSITION Comparing the Postcommunist Use of the Concept of Transition with That Found in Soviet Ideology
    peer-reviewed essay 29 by Kristian Petrov illustrations Ragni Svensson THE CONCEPT OF TRANSITION IN TRANSITION Comparing the postcommunist use of the concept of transition with that found in Soviet ideology he fall of the Soviet Union (USSR) also spelled the virtual some fifteen years earlier.4 death of Sovietology — the Cold War era area study of The lion’s share of the new “transitologists” was not, however, Soviet-style societies and politics.1 If Sovietologists were made up of reforming ex-Sovietologists, but more so of new schol- not to throw in the towel, it would seem they had to face ars who did not, like the previous area specialists, necessarily have the choice of either refocusing on the few remains of communism a background as experts on communism, the former Eastern Bloc, outside Europe or continuing to apply their older theories to the or Slavonic languages, but rather were included by being com- new realities emerging within the post-Soviet bloc.2 However, parativists in a more general sense.5 some Sovietologists, notably of a younger generation, identified Postcommunist transitology could be characterized as a more or a third option. This involved contributing to what within the less autonomous interdisciplinary social science approach,6 albeit social sciences at the time was evolving as a new interdisciplinary inspired by an anticipating global transitology of so-called third research field, concerned with countries defined to be in a state wave democratization.7 The process of change in the postcom- of economic, political,
    [Show full text]
  • Reflection on Transitology
    REFLECTIONS ON ‘TRANSITOLOGY’ – Before and After Philippe C. Schmitter European University Institute We did not invent the concept of “transitology,” but Guillermo O’Donnell and I have been repeatedly associated with it and even blamed for its existence. When we wrote Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusion about Uncertain Democracies, we had virtually no existing literature to draw upon. Books and articles on how ‘real-existing’ democracies functioned and managed to survive constituted a sizeable library. Those on how these regimes came to be democratic might have filled a few shelves – and most of them consisted of historical descriptions of single cases. For the most part we ransacked the case studies produced by the other participants in the Woodrow Wilson Center project, but both of us also reached back to the classics of political thought. I personally found a lot of inspiration in the work of Niccolò Machiavelli who, I discovered, had been grappling some time ago with regime change in the opposite direction, i.e. from ‘republican’ to ‘princely’ rule. My hunch is that Guillermo reached similar conclusions based on his critical reading of the literature on established liberal democracies that assumed the prior need for a lengthy list of requisite conditions and, hence, the virtual impossibility for any newcomers to enter this select and privileged group of about twenty regimes.i Neither of us could imagine that the fledgling efforts we were observing in Southern Europe and Latin America in the early 1980s would soon be followed by almost seventy other regime transformations in all regions of the world.ii In each case, the declared (and publicly supported) objective was to become democratic – more or less according to the norms and practices of those twenty or so forerunners in Western Europe, North America and Oceania.
    [Show full text]