Democratization A Critical Introduction Jean Grugel Democratization Also by Jean Grugel POLITICS AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE CARIBBEAN BASIN FRANCO’S SPAIN (with T. Rees) REGIONALISM ACROSS THE NORTH–SOUTH DIVIDE (edited with W. Hoot) DEMOCRACY WITHOUT BORDERS (editor) Democratization A Critical Introduction Jean Grugel © Jean Grugel 2002 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in a accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin’s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 0-333-67968-7 hardback ISBN 0-333-67969-5 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grugel, Jean. Democratization : a critical introduction / Jean Grugel. p.cm. Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0-333-67968-7 – ISBN 0-333-67969-5 (pbk) 1. Democratization. 2. Democracy. I. Title JC423 .G78 2001 321.8–dc21 2001036990 10987654341 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 Printed in Hong Kong To Martin This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Boxes xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 Contemporary Democratization 1 The Meaning of Democratization 3 Democratization and Democracy 6 Democratization and Globalization 7 The Structure and Purpose of This Book 9 1 Democracy 12 Democracy: A Simple Concept? 12 From Direct to Liberal Democracy 13 Empirical Democratic Theory 17 Critiques of Empirical Democratic Theory 20 Contemporary Theories of Democracy 22 Participatory democracy 23 Feminism 24 Associationalism 26 Citizenship 27 Cosmopolitanism 28 Conclusion 30 2 Democratization in Historical Perspective 32 The Wave Theory 32 Strengths and weaknesses of the wave approach 34 Rethinking the third wave 36 Democratization in History 37 Contemporary Democratization 44 Conclusion 45 3 Theories of Democratization 46 Modernization Theory 46 Evaluating modernization theory 48 Modernization theory today 50 Historical Sociology 51 vii viii Contents Evaluating historical sociology 55 Historical sociology today 56 Transition Studies 56 Evaluating transition studies 60 Transition studies today 62 An Alternative Approach: The State, Civil Society and Globalization 64 Conclusion 67 4 Democratization and the State 68 Democratization of the State 68 Institutional Transformation 70 Elections 71 Parties 73 Political leadership, presidentialism and parliamentary systems 75 The Limitations of Institutional Change 76 Obstacles to the Democratization of the State 77 Nationality problems 77 Diminished sovereignty 80 Poor state capacity 82 Authoritarian legacies 85 The political fallout from economic reform 87 Conclusion 90 5 Democratization and Civil Society 92 Civil Society and Democracy 92 Conceptualizing the Role of Civil Society in Democratization 96 Civil Society Organizations and Contemporary Democratization 99 Women’s movements 100 Labour movements 103 Community organizations 107 Indigenous movements 109 Civil Society after the Transition 112 Conclusion 114 6 Democratization and Globalization 116 Globalization and Democracy 116 The global political economy 117 Global governance 119 Contents ix The diffusion of democratic values 120 Promoting Democracy 121 States 123 Governance institutions 129 Political parties 130 Transnational NGOs 132 Evaluating Policies in Support of Democracy 135 Conclusion 138 7 Democratization and Southern Europe 140 Portugal: Democratization or a Revolution Contained? 140 Democratization in Spain 145 Democracy Returns to Athens: The Greek Transition 150 Theorizing the Transitions 153 The State 154 The state as actor in democratization 154 State institutions and democratic change 156 The state as obstacle to democratic consolidation 157 Democratization and Civil Society 157 Popular mobilization and democracy 158 Global Factors 159 (Re)joining Europe 160 The geopolitical dimension 161 International support for democratization 162 Conclusion 163 8 Democratization in the Developing World: Latin America and Africa 165 Democratization in Latin America 166 Democratization in Africa 171 Theorizing Democratization in the Developing World 174 The State 176 Legacies from the past 177 Reform of the state 180 Civil Society and Democratization 183 Democratization and the Global Order 187 Conclusion 190 9 Democratization in Post-Communist Countries 192 Democratization in the Post-Communist World 193 Communism in crisis 193 x Contents The disintegration of the Soviet Union 195 East and Central Europe 198 The Balkans 202 Theorizing Democratization in the Post-Communist World 203 The State 205 The ‘stateness’ problem 206 State capacity 207 Civil Society and Democratization in the Post-Soviet World 209 Democratization and Globalization 211 Geopolitics and democratic promotion 213 Conclusion 215 10 Democratization in Asia 217 Tentative Patterns of Regional Democratization 217 South Korea 218 Taiwan 220 The Philippines 222 China 223 Theorizing Democratization in Asia 226 The State 228 Civil Society 232 Globalization and Democracy 234 Conclusion 237 Conclusion 238 The Causes of Democratization 239 Explaining Outcomes 243 The Future of Democratization 246 Bibliography 248 Index 267 List of Boxes I.1 Stepan’s paths to democratization 4 1.1 Schumpeterian democracy 19 1.2 The institutions of polyarchy 19 2.1 Capitalism, democracy and the role of classes 38 2.2 State power and democracy 41 3.1 Routes to modernity 53 3.2 The role of the working class in democratization 54 3.3 Pact-making and democratization 60 4.1 Some characteristics of a democratic state 69 4.2 The role of institutions in democratization 71 4.3 Party systems and democratization 74 4.4 State collapse in Sierra Leone 82 4.5 Aims and objectives of economic liberalization 89 5.1 The democratic functions of civil society from a liberal perspective 94 5.2 The democratic functions of civil society from a radical perspective 95 5.3 Political opportunities and democratization: the collapse of the Soviet Union 99 5.4 The formation of a transnational protest network: the rubber-tappers in Brazil 100 5.5 The Spanish labour movement and the demise of Francoism 104 5.6 Indigenous movements and democratization in Latin America 111 6.1 A typology of democratic promotion 122 6.2 US pro-democracy policies in Romania 127 6.3 The PHARE programme 128 6.4 British NGOs and bottom-up democratization in Latin America 134 8.1 Corporatism and populism in Latin America 179 8.2 The community protests in Chile 183 8.3 The civil society project 185 8.4 Externally driven democratization in Africa 188 9.1 The state tradition in the East 207 9.2 State traditions in Russia 208 xi xii List of Boxes 9.3 Civil society and nationalism in Yugoslavia 210 10.1 The Tiananmen Square massacre 225 10.2 Asian values: an obstacle to democratization? 227 10.3 The Chinese state and human rights 229 10.4 The 1997 financial crisis and democratization 231 10.5 British aid to China: democratization by dialogue? 236 Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge the support of a number of people in writing this book. In the first place, thanks to my publisher Steven Kennedy for his help, support and cheerful demeanour in the face of missed deadlines, to two anonymous readers who made very useful sug- gestions for improving the manuscript and to Francesca Gains, Gillian Beard and Tony Heron who provided valuable research assistance. Thanks also to my students, undergraduate and postgraduate, who helped me clarify some of the ideas in the book. The Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield is a very congenial environment to work in and I would like to thank all my colleagues for their support. I would particularly like to acknowledge Petr Kopecky and Georgina Waylen, who are probably as relieved to see the end of this book as I am, and Sarah Cooke, Christine Whittaker, Sue Kelk and Katie Middleton for cheering me up while I was writing it. Jenny Pearce and Hazel Smith provided much appreciated encouragment at moments when I needed it. I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Valerie Atkinson for her care and friendship over many years and I would like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge her support – a small thank-you for so very much help. A very special thanks to Martin Smith, who not only discussed the project, read the manuscript and made useful suggestions for improving it, but, more important, put up with me while I finished it. Our daughter contributed nothing to the manuscript and offered only endless distractions from it, but nonetheless I owe her everything, so, finally, thank you to Anna. JEAN GRUGEL xiii Introduction This book analyzes one of the most exciting developments in contempo- rary politics: the sustained attempts, which have gradually gathered pace since the 1970s, to subject government to popular control and to make states work in ways that favour the broad mass of the people. Struggles to establish democracy have their roots in the belief that everyone deserves to live in conditions of dignity, tolerance and respect. This book explains how a range of global pressures and events combined to open a political oppor- tunity for democratization at the end of the twentieth century.