Third Wave Of Democratization

Question 1

What is the third wave of democratization?

Answer 1

It is essentially and according to Malinda smith, the collapse of Europeans empires and colonies in Africa and Asia cuz of anti colonial resistance and just war fatigue.

Question 2

When did it emerge and why?

Answer 2

The late 20tg century after the collapse of the Soviet Union, failures of communist and socialist experiments and the rise of neoliberalism.

Question 3

What are the 4 areas of progress and setbacks it highlights?

Answer 3

1. Highlights the fact that there was increasingly illegitimate but ongoing military intervention
2. Regular elections and occasional transfers of power, but in reality they were democratic rollbacks and hybrid regimes
3. Democratic institutionalizations but still tons of corruption was happening
4. There was an institutionalizations of political parties but instead there was also ethnic voting so it fostered a very exclusionist and often violent society

Question 4

What are 3 more highlights and setbacks it produces?

Answer 4

1. Increasingly dense civil societies, but local realities of i civility, violence and insecurity
2. Although there were new political freedoms and economic growth, there were extensive political controls and uneven development
3. Donor community’s missed commitment too and at times heavy impact on democracy promotion

Question 5

What are third wave countries?

Answer 5

Countries that have changed into democratic govts. From either a monarchy, dictatorship or from colonial rule

Question 6

What are the processes of third wave democracies?

Answer 6

1. Transformation: top-down change form within govt.
2. Transplacement:negotiated reform of regime & govt.
3. Replacement: regime breakdown and the collapse of authority

Question 7

What’s the importance of the third wave?

Answer 7

It was essentially African states trying to find their own govts and using the western model of democracy and automatically just employing it. Specifically like on the movie we saw in class, it wa first an authoritarian regime, then it lived to a military regime but what was important was that the revolutionaries stopped looking at democracy as the be all end all but were instead looking at the infrastructures in place and what institution would work best where