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Th century waves of democracy

The end of the First World War was a temporary victory for democracy in Europe, as it was preserved in France and temporarily extended to Germany. The dissolution of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them at least nominally democratic. Already in 1906 full modern democratic rights, universal suffrage for all citizens was implemented constitutionally in Finland as well as an proportional representation, open list system. Likewise, the February Revolution in Russia in 1917 inaugurated a few months of liberal democracy under Alexander Kerensky until Lenin took over in October.

In the early 1930s, the Great Depression brought disenchantment, and most of the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to strong-man rule or dictatorships. Fascism and dictatorships flourished in Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as nondemocratic regimes in the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others.

World War II was ultimately a victory for democracy in Western Europe, where representative governments were established that reflected the general will of their citizens. The successful democratization of the American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany, Austria, Italy, and the occupied Japan served as a model for the later theory of regime change. However, many countries of Central and Eastern Europe became undemocratic Soviet satellite states. In Southern Europe, a number of right-wing authoritarian dictatorships (most notably in Spain and Portugal) continued to exist. In the decades following World War II, most western democratic nations had mixed economies and developed a welfare state, reflecting a general consensus among their electorates and political parties. In the 1950s and 1960s, economic growth was high in both the western and Communist countries; it later declined in the state-controlled economies.

Japan had moved towards democracy during the Taishō period during the 1920s, but it was under effective military rule in the years before and during World War II. The country adopted a new constitution during the postwar Allied occupation, with initial elections in 1946.

India became a democratic republic in 1950 upon achieving independence from Great Britain. Most of the former colonies were independent by 1965. The process of decolonization created much political upheaval in Africa and parts of Asia, with some countries experiencing often rapid changes to and from democratic and other forms of government.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 in the United States helped to protect the black vote, especially in the southern states.

Countries highlighted in blue are designated"Electoral Democracies" in Freedom House's 2006 survey Freedom in the World.

A subsequent wave of democratization brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many nations across Southern Europe in the 1970s and Central Europe in the late 1980s. Spain, Portugal (1974), and several of the military dictatorships in South America returned to civilian rule in the late 1970s and early 1980s (Argentina in 1983, Bolivia, Uruguay in 1984, Brazil in 1985, and Chile in the early 1990s). This was followed in East and South Asia by the mid- to late 1980s. Economic malaise in the 1980s, along with resentment of communist oppression, contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the democratization and liberalization of the former Eastern bloc countries. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they are now members or candidate members of the European Union. The liberal trend spread to some nations in Africa in the 1990s, most prominently in South Africa. Some recent examples of attempts of liberalization include the Indonesian Revolution of 1998, the Bulldozer Revolution in the former Yugoslavia, the Rose Revolution in Georgia, the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan.



Currently, there are 123 countries that are nominally democratic, and the trend is increasing (up from 40 in 1972), though the quality of democracy in some of them is controversial. It has been speculated that the trend of the spreading democracy may continue in the future to the point where liberal democratic nation-states become the universal standard form of human society. (These theories are criticized for instance by those who who point out the high number of illiberal democracies.)

Much of Eastern Europe, Latin America, East and Southeast Asia, and several Arab, central Asian and African states moved towards greater liberal democracy in the 1990s and 2000s.


Date: 2015-12-18; view: 620


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