Chapter 8: Democratic Transitions Flashcards
Bottom-up process by which democratic transitions might occur
The people rise up to overthrow an authortiarian regime in a popular revolution
Top-down process by which democratic transitions might occur
The dictatorial ruling elite introduces liberalising reforms that ultimately lead to a democratic transition
Collective action theory
The pursuit of some objective by groups of individuals.
Preference falsification
The act of misrepresenting a preference under perceived public pressure
Public goods
Nonexcludable and nonrivalous
The collective action (“free-rider”) problem
Individuals have little incentive to contribute to the provision of a public good that will benefit all members of the group
How do we determine the likelihood of successful collective action?
The cost of participation (C), the number of necessary participants (K), the number of individuals (N), and the size of N
A revolutionary threshold
The size of protest at which an individual is willing to participate
A revolutionary cascade
When one person’s participation triggers the participation of another, and so on
When do top-down processes of democraization typically occur?
They frequently result from a split between soft-liners and hard-liners in an authoritarian regime
Why might it be difficult to distinguish top-down and bottom-up processes?
Because democratization typically occurs after the authoritarian elite have come under some form of pressure
Complete information games
Game-theoretic models in which each player knows all the information there is to know
