Democracy and Democratic Consolidation
Democracy, as have been defined by Diamond, is the rule bestowed upon the people and is illustrated as an effective system for electing the government. The elections in this case are carried forth in an electoral competition that is free and fair. Democracy avails an environment that is accountable, responsive, and predictable as well as the ability of good governance. When a country is able to preserve the democratic space, then it is likely that there will be limited violence in a country and as a result, democracy will have been consolidated.
Democracy can be illustrated as the form of an institution where there is mixture of the best form of government, or even a constitutional government where freedom is constrained by the rule of law. Furthermore, popular sovereignty is tempered by the state institutions that generate order and stability (Diamond, 1999). In a state where democracy is practiced, Aristotle observes that the multitude have the ultimate power and they supersede the law by their decree.
On the other hand, American Federalists, Locke Montesquieu observes that it is only a constitutional government which is characterized with dividing and restraining the temporary power of the majority which has the power to protect the freedom of the individual. Robert Dahl states that democracy can be instrumental to the cause of freedom in three different ways. He observes that there ought to be a culture where people can be able to express their political rights, organization and opposition. Dahl also notes in his second objective on democracy that it maximizes the opportunities towards self determination. It is the democratic space allotted to the person that uplifts human development. People ideas, preference and interest are represented in policy making when there is a greater opportunity to express oneself.
The former chief of United Nations, Boutros Boutros Ghali narrated how peace is entrenched in a society that practices democracy. Peaceful conflict resolution within a society can be nurtured when there is norms which restrain the institutionalized democracies from warring with each other. Furthermore, Diamond observes that in order for democracy to thrive, there must be implementation of universalistic norms of equal rights as well as opportunities for all the citizens.
It is also possible to nurture democracy through managing peaceful diversity through political and civil rights for the ethnic minority. Furthermore, Philippe Schmitter and Terry Karl narrates that democracy is uplifted by the citizens being allowed to choose between the highly aggregated solutions presented by the political parties. Turkey is given as a bad example where democracy have been suppressed, hence allowing the right to expression be viewed as a distant past (Diamond, 1999). The government of Turkey has had a bad reputation in the suppressing of the ruthless Kurdish insurgency as well as for its constraints in historical matters.
These violations have made to the disqualifications of several members including India and Turkey where violations of human rights still persist. Democracy also allows for a constitutional system where by the chief executive officers and members of the legislature are elected through a process that is regular and competitive. It also involves multiparty elections which has a universal suffrage. In a liberal democratic space, there is control of the key decisions made by the state as well as in its allocation of resources.
Democracy
According to Juan Linz’s perspective, democracy is the political structures that permit the open making of political choices via the application of fundamental liberties of interaction, information and communication with the sole purpose of liberated rivalry between leaders to have authorities at habitual periods, by peaceful ways, the declaration to lead without locking out at all any office where the leaders are elected by the public.
There have been other perceptions that have been added to the Juan Linz’s perspective of democracy. Termed as the Schumpeterian conception, it has been extended to exclude realms of power that has been set aside and instead, to necessitate that the competitions in the elections be fortified by fundamental political liberties. However, the levels to which the social freedoms in the democracies are confined are not explained. Therefore, the range of social freedoms in democracies may differ greatly according to the desires of the preponderance, but putting into consideration that the fundamental liberties to compete in the politics are not changed and the liberties assured in the constitution are not tampered with. According to Juan Linz, governments that are run by democratic methods rarely go against human liberties although they may violate the rights when faced with terrorism or other tests that are across the grain of the democratic arrangement.
Consolidation of democracy
The core of the consolidation of democracy is a habitual adherence to both the ethics of democracies and the techniques that are employed by the leaders and the congregation. These habits can be seen and can also be calculated by assessment figures. Lawfulness is then connected to three vital scopes of the test of consolidation. Foremost, the democracy ought to be expanded and rendered more dependable. If at all the democracy will become consolidated, it must be tolerant and it has never been heard of a democracy in the world that is intolerant. Next, the organizations of the political bodies of democracy need to become logical, with the skills and independent in order for the key political practices can consign to and be cocooned by their conventions and customs. Institutionalize is connected to the other test of consolidation that falls into the third slot. It pipes that the democracy efficiently take care of the most dire straits in the society but extra imperative they grant the freedom, responsibility and the receptiveness that the mass specifically look forward to from democracy and also the regulation that they look forward to from the government. The scope of the political act is thereby connected in close terms to the initial test of democratic expansion.”…I emphasize here the generally extended nature of democratic consolidation and its close relationship to developing the institutional ,behavioral and cultural components of democracy…”(page 20,Larry ) The writer of the book also emphasizes that there are laws that constituent the consolidation of the democracy that first and foremost must be implemented by an sovereign judiciary.”…autonomous legistratures, credible structures for controlling corruption, effective democratic governance at the local level, a vibrant civil society, and values and practices of tolerance, rust, participation, and accommodation.”(page 20).”If the core process of consolidation is legitimization, then it must involve some transformational of the political culture …the highest theoretical imperative in thinking is to avoid teleology” (page 22)
The third wave of democracy
Larry extensively quotes Samuel Haughton to be in a position to explain the third wave. Academicians use the term “the third wave” when researching what is viewed as democratic evolutions and the spreading of democracy all over the world that is developing. The third wave began when the tyrannies of Portugal who ruled using dictatorship were toppled from power on the April of 1974.The third wave can be said to be powered by a single party. It can be explained that the main factor that runs the third wave is democracy in which the tyranny was instead replaced by political administration offices that were accessed through political rivalry on which the political aspirants are faced with the possibilities and probabilities of being triumphed over(overpowered).From the book that Larry reviews, Huntington pipes that there were also other factors that lead to the third wave. The factors are: the external influence by the nations that already had democratic governments such as the United States and the union that was formed by the European countries; there were also alterations that were impacted to the Catholic Church by the second Vatican that accentuated that there must be individual liberties and the opposition to the rule exhibited by the tyrannies and the Catholic church had the objective of ending authoritative leadership for the well-being of their churches in such countries which included Hungary, Poland and Latin America; the other reason was that due to the anticipation of intervallic and rivaled elections, weak military forces the authoritarian leadership could no longer be relied upon; and the expansion in the universal economic productivity assisting in updating the other countries that were registered less development.
The role of political culture in democratization
Scholars define political culture as the outline of individual approaches and courses toward political ambitions among the affiliates of a political structure. The democratization is a exceptional relationship to the political institutions. The various sectors of political arrangements such as the presidential or parliamentary structures and the sharing of power impacts greatly on the structure of the party and the political system. A political culture based on democracy endorses constructive outlooks and assessments and disbands unconstructive outlooks and forms of conduct such as corruption.
The political role in democratic consolidation
A democratic consolidation can be defined as the course through which a new democracy gets established and that it is not likely to slip back to the rule of authoritarian without an alarm. A strong political system in a nation is vital for a well-built and strengthens democracy. The political system gives form to the involvement of the nationalists through the electoral process. More so, the political parties are vital in making democratic administrations come true and on the contrary in fighting against them.
Conclusion
A democracy is the political structures which allows the open making of political choices through the application of fundamental freedoms of interaction, information and communication with the sole purpose of liberated rivalry between leaders to have authorities at habitual periods, by peaceful ways, the declaration to lead without locking out at all any office where the leaders are elected by the public.
However, it has been extended by what has been termed as the Schumpeterian conception which on top of the initial definition, adds that it excludes set aside realms of power and in contrary, strengthens basic political freedoms. In consolidation of the democracy, lawfulness is connected to the three scopes that are used namely: dependability, sovereignty and institutionalization.”The third wave” began when authoritarian rule of Portugal but it is used by scholars when researching democracy evolution and the spread of democracies throughout the world.
Reference
Diamond, Larry. (1999). Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
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