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Democratization since the implosion of the communist bloc displays a mixed balance. While the neo-democracies in Central Eastern European Countries can be seen as largely consolidated, many other processes of democratization in other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia and Latin America got stuck as unconsolidated or became defective democracies, some ?regressed? into hybrid regimes or were even turned into autocracies. While transitology dealt with the transition from authoritarian rule, the reverse process, the transition from democratic rule, remained almost completely outside the scholarly attention. This special issue will address the problems of the regression of democracy and aims at closing the gap between research on democracy and democratization on one side and the emergence of authoritarian regimes on the other. The contributions of this volume analyse the different phenomena in which decline of democracy fans out: the loss of quality, which means a silent regression; the backslide into hybrid regimes (hybridization); and the breakdown of democracy.
List of contents
Aus dem Inhalt:
Introduction - Loss of quality, hybridization, and breakdown of democracy - Quality Criteria for Democracy. Why Responsiveness is not the Key? - Is the international environment becoming less benign for democratization? - The United States Of America. A Deficient Democracy - Deficits in democratic quality? The effects of party system institutionalization on the quality of democracy in Central Eastern Europe - Do Party Systems Make Democracy Work? A Comparative Test of Party-system Characteristics and Democratization in Francophone Africa - Democratic Regression and Transitions to Autocracy: Lessons from Russia and Venezuela - Wilted roses and tulips. The decay of democracy in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia compared - Democratic Survival or Autocratic Revival in Interwar Europe. A Comparative Examination of Structural Explanations
About the author
Dr. Gero Erdmann ist wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Institut für Afrikakunde (IAK), Hamburg.
Marianne Kneuer ist Professorin für Politikwissenschaft an der Universität Hildesheim.
Summary
Democratization since the implosion of the communist bloc displays a mixed balance. While the neo-democracies in Central Eastern European Countries can be seen as largely consolidated, many other processes of democratization in other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia and Latin America got stuck as unconsolidated or became defective democracies, some ‘regressed’ into hybrid regimes or were even turned into autocracies. While transitology dealt with the transition from authoritarian rule, the reverse process, the transition from democratic rule, remained almost completely outside the scholarly attention. This special issue will address the problems of the regression of democracy and aims at closing the gap between research on democracy and democratization on one side and the emergence of authoritarian regimes on the other. The contributions of this volume analyse the different phenomena in which decline of democracy fans out: the loss of quality, which means a silent regression; the backslide into hybrid regimes (hybridization); and the breakdown of democracy.
Foreword
Profound insights into democratization processes and the emergence of authoritarian regimes
