Democratic consolidation

Democratic consolidation is the process by which a new democracy matures, in a way that means it is unlikely to revert to authoritarianism without an external shock. The notion is contested because it is not clear that there is anything substantive that happens to new democracies that secures their continuation beyond those factors that simply make it 'more likely' that they continue as democracies. Unconsolidated democracies suffer from formalized but intermittent elections and clientelism.[1]

Consolidation theories

Institutionalization

Some scholars think that the process by which a democracy becomes consolidated involves the creation and improvement of secondary institutions of the democracy. Linz and Stepan's thesis, for example, is that democracy is consolidated by the presence of the institutions supporting and surrounding elections (for example the rule of law).[2]

Informal rules

O'Donnell believes that the institutionalization of electoral rules is not the most interesting feature of democratic consolidation. His approach is to compare the formal institutional rules (for example the constitution) with the informal practices of actors. Consolidation on this view is when the actors in a system follow (have informally institutionalised) the formal rules of the democratic institution.

Civic culture

Political culture is linked to democratic consolidation. Scholars Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, in The Civic Culture (1963), argued that public participation in government and attitudes toward government were significant in democratic transition and consolidation.[3] Some scholars identify political tolerance and trust in institutions as important to democratic consolidation.[4]

Labour migration

One of the suggested obstacles to democratic consolidation is brain drain in which high skilled workers from developing countries migrate to high-income and capital-rich countries. This leaves many new democracies in the developing world problems in terms of steering effective governance due to the lack of high-skilled professionals [5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ O'Donnell 1996 'Illusions about Consolidation'
  2. ↑ Linz and Consolidated Democracies'
  3. ↑ Russell J. Dalton and Doh Chull Shin , Reassessing The Civic Culture Model (2011).
  4. ↑ Carlos Garcia-Rivero, Hennie Kotzé & Pierre Du Toit, Political culture and democracy: The South African case. Politikon: South African Journal of Political Studies, pp. 163-181, Vol. 29, 2002.
  5. ↑ RRegilme Jr, Salvador Santino F. "Is International Labor Migration Good for Democratic Consolidation?." Peace Review 25.1 (2013): 97-103.
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