Transitioning Politics: From Dictatorship to Democracy

1. Chapter 22: Comparative Political SystemsSection 3

2. Objectives • Understand how regimes can change from dictatorship to democracy. • Describe the fall of the Soviet Union. • Explain the factors necessary for democratic consolidation to take place. • Analyze why some countries experience setbacks or failed transitions to democracy.

3. Key Terms • hard-liners:those who fight to maintain the status quo • soft-liners:those who want to reform the policies of the current government • democratization:the change from dictatorship to democracy • democratic consolidation:a process that occurs as a country firmly establishes factors needed to sustain a democracy

4. Key Terms, cont. • genocide:the attempted extermination of a cultural, racial, or national group • failed states:governments that have little control over large sections of their own territory and which face severe economic, educational, health, and security challenges

5. Introduction • How successfully have some nations achieved democratic government? • Some countries like Russia achieved formal democracy, but retain some aspects of dictatorships. • Other countries, such as Iraq, are just beginning to develop democratic systems. • A large group of countries, like Somalia, have tried but failed to create working democracies, leading to failed states.

6. Openings for Democracy • Democracies tend to emerge in waves across the world and the number of democracies has increased over time. • Many democracies replace failed dictatorships, which have limited basic rights. • People living under dictatorships may question why they do not enjoy the freedoms of people living in democracies. • Internal splits between hard-liners and soft-liners can also divide a dictatorship. • Individual reformers like Lech Walesa in Poland and Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia have also helped bring about democratic changes.

7. Fall of the Soviet Union • The fall of the Soviet Union was the result of a series of events, including: • The fall of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany • The collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe

8. Fall of the Soviet Union, cont. • Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a reformer in the 1980s. • His perestroikapolicy restructured Soviet political and economic life, while glasnost allowed more freedom of expression. • The USSR fell apart in 1991 after Boris Yeltsin became president of Russia and challenged a military coup by hard-liners. • Russia created a new constitution that set up a democratic republic with protections for individual rights.

9. Independent Russia • Vladimir Putin (below, far right) became Russian president in 1999. He limited civil liberties, gave the presidency more power, won questionable elections, and picked his own successor in 2007. • Russia’s economy has improved, but it may once again be a dictatorship.

10. Democratic Consolidation • Checkpoint: What is democratic consolidation? • Democratic consolidation is the process by which a country establishes a sense of common trust among its citizens, which enables them to support a long-term democracy. • Key factors include the creation of a free press, a multiparty system, a fair economic system, and a professional civil service, as well as establishing civilian control of the military.

12. Haiti • The process of democratization in the Caribbean nation of Haiti has been difficult. • The Duvalier dictatorship ended with the election of President Aristide in 1990, but after being overthrown and returning to power, he became a dictator himself. • Currently Haiti is ruled by a provisional government and a UN peacekeeping force. The country suffers widespread poverty and lawlessness.

13. Iraq • The United States overthrew Iraq’s dictatorship in 2003 and has since faced great challenges trying to establish a democracy there. • There are few democratic or cultural traditions to unify Iraq’s Shia and Sunni religious groups and its ethnic Kurds. • In 2005, Iraqis did elect a parliament that drafted a democratic constitution approved by the people.

14. Divisions in Iraq • A large majority of Iraq’s inhabitants are Muslim, but they adhere to different forms of Islam, belong to many different ethnic groups, and speak different languages. • How can religious and linguistic divides pose challenges for a new democracy?

15. Setbacks • Some countries attempt democracy and fail, becoming threats to other countries. • Ethnic violence erupted when the country of Yugoslavia broke apart in the late 1980s. • Bosnia-Herzegovina was attacked by Serbia and Croatia and nearly 200,000 civilians suffered genocide before NATO stepped in to stop the fighting.

16. Failed States • Countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, and Somalia cannot control large parts their own territory. • In such failed states, the economy struggles and the government provides little security, healthcare, or education for the people. • International terrorist groups have found refuge in failed states. • Al Qaeda set up bases in Afghanistan from which they struck at the United States in 2001.

17. Review • Now that you have learned about how successfully some nations have achieved democratic government, go back and answer the Chapter Essential Question. • How should you measure different governments?