Three International Dimensions of Democratization

Abstract

Sets out and elaborates three main headings under which international developments regarding democratization can be grouped and analysed—contagion, control, and consent. The ‘contagion’ heading refers to mere geographical proximity, whereby democratization in one country encourages or facilitates democratization in a neighbouring country, carrying no implications to mode or content of transmission. The ‘control’ heading involves policy direction by an external third‐party power, and accounts in a more satisfactory manner for variations in speed, direction, limits, and mechanisms of transmission. The ‘consent’ heading adds the essential ingredient of the democratization process, namely, the complex set of internal, social, and political factors, which promote receptivity towards the democratization agenda, and recognizes that democratization within a country cannot convincingly be wholly ascribed to external agency.

The international context of Morocco's stalled democratization

“…The result has been a marginalisation of international variables as key explanatory factors in favour of domestic variables. This is also the case in the works of scholars who first introduced the international dimension such as Huntington 3 and Whitehead, 4 although the latter seems to have recently revised his position. Thus, the process and the outcome of a founding moment in the life of a country have been explained as if occurring in a vacuum.…”

Democracy promotion and the challenges of illiberal regional powers: introduction to the special issue

“…There are always too many alternative explanations to discard the notion that external actors played any role in moving a country toward democracy or toward autocracy. 35 The emerging consensus in the literature appears to be that the effects of external democracy promotion are rather modest under the best of circumstances, if not outright counterproductive in some cases. Moreover, scholars have converged on the proposition that such external efforts are doomed to fail unless there are considerable liberal domestic forces driving the fight for democracy and human rights.…”

Planting the Seeds of Change Inside? Functional Cooperation with Authoritarian Regimes and Socialization into Democratic Governance.

“…Studies on the diffusion of democratic norms point to the distinguished role of exchange programs and foreign media in transferring democratic norms to non-democratic states. Whereas exchange programs allow citizens of non-democratic states to experience democratic decision making firsthand in a democratic country (Atkinson 2010;Pérez-Armendáriz and Crow 2010;Nye 2004), foreign media broadcasts delineate democratic practices beyond borders (Kern and Hainmueller 2009;Way and Levitsky 2007;Wejnert 2005;Whitehead 1996). Consequently, state officials employed in a non-democratic polity have had experiences with democratic governance before they enter transgovernmental networks.…”