What is Democratisation?
Democratisation is the process of developing democratic institutions and practices in a country. This involves free and fair elections, the inclusion of minorities in decision-making, and a respect for human rights. It can also involve a change in the balance of power between political forces. Democratisation is not just a political process; it can also have economic, cultural and social dimensions.
When a friend asks you to define democracy, you probably can muster up a fairly decent response: the free and fair holding of elections where citizens can choose who they want to be in government. This is a key feature of democracy but it doesn’t tell the whole story. There are many more things that need to be present for a country to be considered democratic – such as a vibrant civil society, a well-functioning economy and the rule of law.
It is widely accepted that a country can’t be considered as democratic if it has serious problems with its basic infrastructure or if there are significant inequalities. This is why democratisation is often seen as a process that needs to be accompanied by economic reforms and improvements in education.
Democracy can’t be imposed from outside because it requires a level of civil society changes and a certain degree of political maturity in which the citizens can understand and accept democratic ideas and values as complementary to their traditional referents of culture, identity and beliefs on what constitutes the ‘common good’. Attempts to impose a democracy without this development can be seen as highly questionable and in fact doomed to fail, as is the case with Afghanistan and Iraq following US-led intervention.
Moreover, democracy can only be sustained if the citizens and politicians buy into it – the former by supporting democracy on voting day and all other days of the year, the latter by playing by the rules and working to improve people’s lives in accordance with their democratic preferences. The failure of democracy in places like Venezuela, Turkey and Egypt, where the underlying causes are so severe that civil society cannot support them, has reinforced the conviction that there is no such thing as a democracy without a supportive civil society.
However, it is worth noting that a country does not need to be a fully developed democratic state for it to be considered as having the potential to become one. The case of India, the world’s largest democracy, demonstrates that it is possible for a developing country to achieve its full potential as a democracy. The process of democratisation in India started when it became independent from the British Empire in 1947, and it still continues to this day. The same can be said for the emerging democracies in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. All are on a journey towards the goal of becoming more democratic. In the meantime, it is important that they are all treated fairly by the rest of the world. This is a crucial part of the international community’s commitment to the development of democracy worldwide.
Democratisation is the process of developing democratic institutions and practices in a country. This involves free and fair elections, the inclusion of minorities in decision-making, and a respect for human rights. It can also involve a change in the balance of power between political forces. Democratisation is not just a political process; it can also have economic, cultural and social dimensions. When a friend asks you to define democracy, you probably can muster up a fairly decent response: the free and fair holding of elections where citizens can choose who they want to be in government. This is a key feature of democracy but it doesn’t tell the whole story. There are many more things that need to be present for a country to be considered democratic – such as a vibrant civil society, a well-functioning economy and the rule of law. It is widely accepted that a country can’t be considered as democratic if it has serious problems with its basic infrastructure or if there are significant inequalities. This is why democratisation is often seen as a process that needs to be accompanied by economic reforms and improvements in education. Democracy can’t be imposed from outside because it requires a level of civil society changes and a certain degree of political maturity in which the citizens can understand and accept democratic ideas and values as complementary to their traditional referents of culture, identity and beliefs on what constitutes the ‘common good’. Attempts to impose a democracy without this development can be seen as highly questionable and in fact doomed to fail, as is the case with Afghanistan and Iraq following US-led intervention. Moreover, democracy can only be sustained if the citizens and politicians buy into it – the former by supporting democracy on voting day and all other days of the year, the latter by playing by the rules and working to improve people’s lives in accordance with their democratic preferences. The failure of democracy in places like Venezuela, Turkey and Egypt, where the underlying causes are so severe that civil society cannot support them, has reinforced the conviction that there is no such thing as a democracy without a supportive civil society. However, it is worth noting that a country does not need to be a fully developed democratic state for it to be considered as having the potential to become one. The case of India, the world’s largest democracy, demonstrates that it is possible for a developing country to achieve its full potential as a democracy. The process of democratisation in India started when it became independent from the British Empire in 1947, and it still continues to this day. The same can be said for the emerging democracies in Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. All are on a journey towards the goal of becoming more democratic. In the meantime, it is important that they are all treated fairly by the rest of the world. This is a crucial part of the international community’s commitment to the development of democracy worldwide.