Comparative Analysis of Democratization prof. Fulvio Venturino Comparative Politics Principles of Democracy and Democratization Chapter 3: Economics and Political Development

The key question Examination of three approaches concerning economic transformations and political development Modernization theory Dependency theory Statism

Talcott Parsons Traditional vs. modern societies

Seymour M. Lipset Economic modernization and democracy Several aspects of modernization breed democracy Middle class Wealth and pro capita income Urbanization Literacy

Karl Deutsch Modernization and democracy: an indirect relationship Modernization breeds social mobilization (urbanization, literacy, etc.), and the latter in turn pushes for democracy

Gabriel Almond and James Coleman The crisis model Identity crisis: from local to national identities Legitimacy crisis: from divine right to popular sovereignty Participation crisis: from limited to wide-ranging political rights Penetration crisis: from indirect to direct links between rulers and ruled Distribution crisis: from concentrated to inclusive material rewards

Samuel Huntington Four dimensions of political institutionalization adaptability/rigidity complexity/simplicity autonomy/subordination coherence/disunity

Samuel Huntington Classification and examples of regime types

Modernization theory An assessment Most of these approaches are based upon historical observations of the processes of development in the Western, particularly the European experience The political development is primarily a consequence or a function of economic development An often cited key intervening variable is the role played by political culture

Dependency theory Criticisms against modernization theory Dependency theory contends that modernization theory does not take into account the impact of the international system on internal development There are fundamental differences between the earlier experiences of the industrialized countries and the experiences of the developing world in the twentieth century

Dependency theory Neo-imperialism of the twentieth century

Dependency theory Main tenets Unlike the Western bourgeoisie, who were a progressive class, the “comprador bourgeoisie” are neither socially progressive nor champions of political democracy There is little hope for the emergence of political democracy as long as dependent economic relations are maintained between the international core and the world periphery

Statism Point of departure: several countries in the periphery have catching up (f.i. Asian tigers). What could possibly explain this? Statist theorists are critical of what they called the society-centered approaches to development, that ignored the important role the state had played in terms of capital accumulation and investment, above all to organize war and armies

Modernization theory, dependency theory and statism compared