Embedded and defective democracies

Abstract

In the literature on democratization the mainstream of theoretical and empirical consolidology uses the dichotomy autocracy versus democracy. Democracy is generally conceived of as 'electoral democracy'. This simple dichotomy does not allow a distinction between consolidated liberal democracies and their diminished sub-types. However, over half of all the new electoral democracies represent specific variants of diminished sub-types of democracy, which can be called defective democracies. Starting from the root concept of embedded democracies, which consists of five interdependent partial regimes (electoral regime, political rights, civil rights, horizontal accountability, effective power to govern), the article distinguishes between four diminished sub-types of defective democracy: exclusive democracy, illiberal democracy, delegative democracy and tutelary democracy. It can be shown that defective democracies are by no means necessarily transitional regimes. They tend to form stable links to their economic and societal environment and are often seen by considerable parts of the elites and the population as an adequate institutional solution to the specific problems of governing 'effectively'. As long as this equilibrium between problems, context and power lasts, defective democracies will survive for protracted periods of time.

Regimes of the World (RoW): Opening New Avenues for the Comparative Study of Political Regimes

“…We focus on this distinction because it is the most common within the democratic regime spectrum (e.g. Diamond, 1999Diamond, , 2002Merkel, 2004;Munck, 2009). In addition to fulfilling the criteria for electoral democracy, liberal democracies are characterized by an additional set of individual and minority rights beyond the electoral sphere, which protect against the "tyranny of the majority"; thus having limits on government is intrinsic to democracy itself (e.g.…”

“…Core components thus include legislative and judicial oversight over the executive providing checks and balances, as well as the protection of individual liberties, including access to, and equality before, the law. In particular, the rule of law is a fundamental prerequisite for the implementation of the liberal principle as it ensures that decisions are implemented (Merkel, 2004).…”

De Facto States and Democracy: The Case of Abkhazia

“…Such a situation, when equal opportunities in access to national institutions only pertain to members of a single ethnic group and are refused to others based on nationality is called either ethnocracy (Smooha, 1997) or exclusive democracy. The latter one is, according to Merkel's (2004) conceptual scheme, one of four possible defects of democratic regime, a reduced democratic sub-type violating one of the basic characteristics of democracy -the political equality of citizens regardless their ethnic origin.…”

The Diversity of Political Regimes

“…But all hybrid regimes clearly cannot be dismissed as merely transitional phenomena. As noted by Merkel, hybrid regimes, or 'defective democracies' as he labels them, are able to form stable links to their environment and are often accepted by elites as well as citizens at large as adequate solutions to the manifold problems that are present in postauthoritarian societies (Merkel 2004).…”