Linz and Stepan (1996) Problems of democratic transition and consolidation

Reading list pages 3 - 83 in MT09 Week 3.
Available New College - P 1.3 LIN
Available Hard Copy in folder.

Chapter 1 - Democracy and its arenas
Character of a non-democ regime affects the paths of transition and what actions must be taken
Definition - completed transition: sufficient agreement about procedures...
Electorialist fallacy... elections are necessary but not sufficient
Institutional indeterminacy within the democratic arena may leave the transition incomplete
Definition - consolidated democracy: separate from the quality of democracy, a narrower definition involving behavioural, attitudinal and constitutional dimensions. Democracy has become "the only game in town".
Behaviourally - no significant groups seriously attempt to overthrow democ regime or secede from the state.
Attitudinally - the overwhelming majority of the people believe in the democratic system
Constitutionally - all the actors in the polity agree political conflict will be resolved according to the established norms, and that violations of these norms likely to be ineffective and costly
The ineffective and costly bit is a useful addition. most of these definitions seem vague and difficult to operationalise
A consolidated democ would only break down due to some new dynamic not inherent weakness.

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The Five Arenas of a Consolidated Democracy
Five interacting arenas to enforce one another.
Democracy is governance of a state. So the polity must first become a state.
1. Free and lively civil society.
2. Autonomous and valued civil society
3. Rule of law to guarantee individuals' freedoms and right to association life
4. State apparatus/bureacracy
5. Institutionalised economic society

In the regimes thy studied, non-democratic states did not survive by defending themselves by force. The cost of that scale of repression was too high, and the legitimacy believed too weak.
A full democratic transition must involve political society involving appreciation of the core institutions political parties, elections, electoral rules, political leadership, interparty alliances and legislatures.
Distinctiveness of civil and political society but also their complementarity is important to consolidate democracy.
At the moment of democratic transition, political society might try to dismantle civil society.
All significant actors must uphold and respect the rule of law (often a rule of law embodied in a spirit of consitutionalism)
First 3 are virtually definitional pre-requisites of a consolidated democracy. Conditions more likely to be satisfied if 4 and 5 exist as well.
To protect rights of its citizens govt needs to claim a monopoly on the use of force. Effective capacity to command, regulate and extract.
Economic society. There can never be a consolidated democracy in a command economy (excluding in war time). Similarly there can never be a modern consolidated democ in a pure market economy. Economic society is the socio-politically constructed set of norms and insitutions which mediate between the state and the market.
They theorise that a degree of market autonomy and ownership diversity in society is necessary to produce the liveliness and independence of civil society necessary to contribute to democracy. They didn't explain why exactly civil society is necessary apart from to oppose non-democratic regimes. Civil society is a way of consolidating the power of the people and making it tangible.
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Adam Smith assigned three indispensible tasks to the modern state.

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Nation states and democratisation: inconvenient facts
Under what empirical conditions do they form complementary and conflictual logics?
A nation-state policy (Rogers Brubaker: "nationalising state policies" (1994) aimed at increasing cultural homegeneity). Dominant language, maybe a favoured religion, - contrast to democratic policies in the state making process which emphasise a broad and inclusive citizenship where all citizens are accorded equal individual rights.
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Conflicts are reduced when empirically almost all of the residents of a state identify with one subjective idea of the nation (a nation which is virtually contiguous with the state). Only in the cases of no significant irredenta, only on nation existing within the state, and low cultural diversity - simultaneously pursue democratisation policies and nation state policies.
However, very few states that are nondemocratic will begin a democratic transition with a very high degree of nation state homogeneity. (but they gave examples of six states that did begin transitions with homogenous nation states).
When there are national groups that claim the right of self-determination.
When there is a large minority that might be considered by a neighbouring state an irredenta.
If minorities are alienated they might turn to a neighbouring country for support.
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Complex negotiations, pacts and possible territorial realignments and consociational agreements are often necessary before the majority formula will be accepted as legitimately binding. As Dahl argues (1989) simple insistence on the majority formula per se will not do anything until the appropriateness of the unit is established.
Could having a lack of a single nation state actually help spur the emergence of democracy, a consensus mode of government would be the only way to impart legitimacy? Depends on how deep the cleavages are between the groups.
The domain is the group of people comprising the unit - and it should be clearly bounded (Dahl 1989). The more indeterminate the domain or scope, the more likely the unit, if established, would become embroiled in jurisdictional squabbles or even civil wars. (p. 207)
They think it would be impossible for half the territories in the world that are not now democratic could ever simultaneously become nation-states and consolidated democracies (because creating the nation would involve non-democratic actions).
Because many of the states are multinational, multilingual and multicultural.
The purposeful process of nation building by the French after the Jacobin idea was an incredible success.
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Sociological analysis is that such an effort is doomed to failure in most societies and certainly liberal democratic societies. Every society produces an intellectual elite which defends the "primordial" values and characteristics. Such elites did not exist in agrarian preindustrial societies (Gellner). Argues that under modern circumstances with advanced communication systems and widely disseminated national cultural output, and multicultural norms abound - homogenising policies would be likely undemocratic and might tend towards ethnic cleansing.
They are glossing over a very complex subject here but making a distanced, general point.

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Multinational states and consociational democracies.
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If successful democratic consolidation is the goal, the particular mix of nations, cultures, and awakened political identities present [must be taken into account by democracy crafters]. Nationalising policies could be destabilising, e.g. civil society: schooling and mass media restricted to the official language. Political society - nationalising citizenship laws could lead to over-representation of the dominant nationality. State bureacracy - use of a particular language could over represent one nationality. Rule of law could privilege a range of cultural customs. Economic society the state could be given rights to ownership distribution. A democratising strategy would require consensus policies in each of these areas.
Is this a systematic approach to nation state/democracy building? See table pg. 36.

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Chapter 4 - The implications of prior regime type for transition paths and consolidation tasks
It depends how developed the 5 arenas of democracy are. E.g. authoritarian regime could be strong in every arena apart from the political arena - the creation of the autonomy, authority, power and legitimacy of democratic institutions.
Difference between transition from post-totalitarian regime (Spain in '70s, Hungary) and from a fully totalitarian regime.
They claim to spell out their arguments in a "systematic and detailed manner".
Post-totalitarian regimes still may need to overcome the legacy of authoritarianism.
Sultanistic societies will need to begin construction of civil society, constitutionalism and a rule of law, professional norms for the bureacracy, economic society and political institutions from a very low base.
Neither theoretically nor historically do democratic transitions involve pacts.
Eight distinctive paths to redemocratisation (see Stepan, in O'Donnell, Schmitter and Whitehead eds 1986) only 3 of which involved pacts.
Pacts can range from very democratic to not democratic in their intention and consequences.
Pact creation does not automatically lead to pact maintenance.
(more)

O'Donnell (1999) Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies

O’Donnell, Guillermo (1999 )“Horizontal Accountability in New Democracies” in Andreas
Schedler, Larry Diamond, and Marc Plattner eds. The Self-restraining State: Power and
Accountability in New Democracies pp29-52.
Available SSL - JF229.SEL



Notes. (more)