What Promotes Democratic Change in Developing Societies?

Democratic Change in Developing Countries : External and Internal Factors Within a few last decades the world has achieved substantial progress in increasing political openness and political liberties . 81 countries of the world made major steps on their way of democratization , and currently multi-party elections are being held in 140 states among about 200 existing - more than ever before (United Nation Development Program (UNDP , 2002 ,

. 2 . But sober political realities of the twenty first century demonstrate that democratization process is not smooth and sustainable . Developing countries carried out democratization of their political countries

under conditions of mass poverty and deep social and economical tension (UNDP , 2002 ,

. 4 . Some of them which had undertaken steps toward democratic change after 1980 later returned back to more authoritative rule : either military as in Pakistan since 1999 or pseudo-democratic as in Zimbabwe last years . Many others appeared to stand somewhere in between democracy and authoritarianism , with limited political liberties and closed or improperly functioning political systems . Some others , including such backward countries as Afghanistan and Somalia , Nigeria and Peru , Iraq and Cambodia , made favourable ground for extremism and armed conflicts (Armijo , Biersteker Lowenthal , 1994 br

. 169

That is why it is very important for attaining stable peace and facilitating sustainable development all over the world to realize what leads to deepening and expansion of democracy . Democracy guaranteeing civil liberties , legitimacy observance and appointment of top-level political authority by elections is a great good , especially for developing countries as it is well-known that under conditions of lack of resources decentralized free market is more efficient than centralized allocation of resources (Shepherd , 1998 ,

. 38

The purpose of this study is to explore which factors contribute to promotion of democratic change in developing nations as their way to democratization seems to be the most difficult due to necessity to resolve simultaneously one more task - that of economic transformation Toward this end we will analyze how current globalization of democratization influence upon developing countries , examine their internal economic and social forces facilitating democratic reforms review different views of scholars on contribution of external and internal factors to democratization success , and make the conclusion

Global Democratic Trends and Their Impact on Developing Nations

The notion of `democratic society ' presumes entire complex of values and social institutions developed by world civilization , among them a legitimate state , civil society , political , economical and social pluralism , worthiness of human rights and liberties - freedom of expression , association and organization - and their legal guarantee The main thing in democratic state is protection of a citizen and his rights from dictatorship of the state and its officials , public control of their activities , subordination of the state to the society and its high responsiveness to societal pressures , supremacy of law , and primacy of individual freedom (Arblaster , 1999 ,

. 35 . Luckily , nowadays we are living in the period of historical expansion of democracy (Shepherd 1998 ,

. 41 . Although in 1988 two thirds of governments in the world were autocratic (Huntington , 1993 ,

. 21 , now 70 nations...