Introduction
The 1980s registered a widespread expansion of electoral democracy around the world. Mainstream social sciences referred to this change as the third wave of democratization and they explained it through a theoretical approach that was called the transition paradigm. According to this paradigm, c...
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| Formato: | Text draft Capítulo de Libro |
| Lenguaje: | Eng |
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CLACSO
2012
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| Acceso en línea: | http://biblioteca.clacso.edu.ar/gsdl/collect/clacso/index/assoc/D5427.dir/2.intro.pdf |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | The 1980s registered a widespread expansion of electoral democracy around
the world. Mainstream social sciences referred to this change as the third wave of democratization and they explained it through a theoretical approach that was called the transition paradigm. According to this paradigm, countries that were previously under authoritarian rule were viewed to be moving towards democracy.
The shift towards a democratic regime was characterized by the development of free and competitive elections, and by the existence of basic political and civil rights. To a large extent, democracy was equated with elections. In this analytical framework, the key factor in bringing about this political change was the acceptance of electoral results by elites and power-holders with veto power. Some of these actors were democrats, while others accepted these rules on the grounds that democratic government was a lesser evil, preferable to the dictatorships that were in decline. The centrality of elite competition for the definition of democracy reveals
the Schumpeterian thrust of the transitionists conception of democracy. |
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