Dankwart Riistow

Dankwart Rustow

Dankwart Alexander Rustow (born December 21, 1924 in Berlin ; † August 3, 1996 in Manhattan , New York ) was a professor of political science and sociology . He is perhaps better known as the "father of transitology, " a school of thought that conducts research in the field of democratization. In his influential and fundamental work Transitions to Democratization: Perspective as a Dynamic Model , originally published in 1970 under the name Transitions to Democracy. Toward a Dynamic Model appeared, Riistow broke with the views of the prevailing schools of thought of how states develop into democracies. It is not social and economic preconditions that are required for democratization, only national unity. During the transition from authoritarian to democratic rules, a broad consensus on the new rules of the game was required between the elites of a nation.

His main achievement

In his argument, Dankwart Rustow criticizes modernizers like Lipset , who asked themselves the functional question of what can develop or at least preserve the state of a democracy. In a transition that leads away from authoritarianism , the essential question is how democracy will find its way into the endeavors of all forces.

Based on studies of Turkey and Sweden , he outlined a general course that both countries undertook in their democratization.

• National unity : The development of a changeable feeling and sense of national unity, which is later an indispensable precondition as a feeling for the state . Before the people decide on the form of rule, it must be clear who “the people” is in itself.

• A protracted political struggle with no results : although this struggle differs from country to country, it is always centered around the power of a newly emerging group (e.g. the industrial elite). Democracy may only arise in this conflict. It is not a “ Ringelpiez you can touch”, but can be violent and bloody. This struggle can lead to the domination of one of the groups that closes the door to democratization again. But if the political struggle achieves a mutual paralysis of forces, the opportunity for democratization opens up.

• Decision-making phase: If the conflicting parties perceive that they cannot get past a political stalemate in their fruitless and protracted political struggle, they decide in favor of democratization as a compromise. For Riistow it is always large sections of the elite who consciously decide to adopt the democratic rules of the game.

• Getting used to : Time in which democratic rules of the game become habit and everyday practice.

His fundamental work prompted humanities scholars to carry out further research that would later become known as transitologists . They researched the disintegration of the authoritarian regimes in Latin America and southern Europe between 1970 and 1990. Humanities scholars such as Larry Diamond , Lawrence Whitehead and Philip Schmitter did not explain democratization movements as socio-economic structural changes, but rather as broad agreements and alliances among the elites Country. It was not international or socio-economic changes that were the impetus for them, but groups within the ruling regime. Riistow is widely cited as the intellectual father of transitology .

life and career

Riistow was born in Berlin in 1924 as the third child of the sociologist Alexander Riistow and the teacher and later ethnologist Anna Bresser. His father emigrated to Turkey in 1933 , where he received a professorship in Istanbul . Dankwart grew up alternately in both Istanbul and Hesse, where he attended the Odenwald School. In 1946, Dankwart Rustow traveled to the United States, studied at Queens College and received his doctorate in political science from Yale University in 1951 . He then taught at the universities: Princeton University and Columbia University and 25 years at City University in New York . In June 1995 he became a full professor of political science and sociology emeritus . He was visiting professor at Harvard University and other institutions, vice president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America, and a former Guggenheim Fellowship . He lived in New York on the Upper West Side. He died in Manhattan in 1996. From three marriages there were two daughters and two sons.

Works (selection)

as an author

• American foreign policy in an international perspective . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1971, ISBN 0-13-026765-1 .
• Turkey, bridge between Orient and Occident ("Turkey, America's forgotten ally"). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht , Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-525-33563-6 (Small Vandenhoeck series; 1549).
• Middle Eastern political systems . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1971, ISBN 0-13-581587-8 .
• Military in Middle Eastern Society and politics . Brookings Institution, Washington, DC 1963.
• Oil and tower oil. America faces OPEC and the Middle East . Norton Books, New York 1982, ISBN 0-393-01597-1 .
• OPEC. Success and prospects . University Press, New York 1977, ISBN 0-8147-7369-9 (with John F. Mugno).
• Political development. The vanishing dream of stability . 1962.
• Politics of compromise. A study of parties and cabinet government in Sweden . 1969.
• Transitions to democracy. Toward a dynamic model . University Press, New York 1970.
• Turkey and the Community (Mediterranean challenge; 5) University Press, Brighton, Sussex 1981, ISBN 0-903422-29-8 (with Trevor Penrose).
• World of Nations. Problems of political modernization . Brookings Institution, Washington, DC 1967.

as editor

• Comparative political dynamics. Global research perspectives . HarperCollins, New York 1991, ISBN 0-06-045673-6 (with Kenneth Paul Erickson).
• Euro-American system. Economic and political relations between North America and Western Europe . Westview Press, Boulder, Colo. 1971, ISBN 0-89158-601-6 (together with Ernst-Otto Czempiel )
• Freedom and domination. A historical critique of civilization . Princeton University Press, New Jersey 1980, ISBN 0-6910-5304-5
• Philosophers and Kings. Studies in leadership . Braziller Books, New York 1970
• Political modernaization in Japan and Turkey . Princeton University Press , NJ 1964 (with Robert E. Ward).

literature

• Aurel Croissant : From Transition to Defective Democracy. Democratic development in the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand . Westdeutscher-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-531-13796-4 (plus dissertation, University of Mainz 2000).
• Thorsten Gromes: Democratization after civil wars. The example of Bosnia and Herzegovina (studies by the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research; Vol. 56). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2007, ISBN 978-3-593-38556-3 .
• Holger Muench: Legitimacy as a key category of democratic consolidation in Poland . Grin Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-638-69990-7 .
• David Potter (Ed.): Democratization . New edition Polity Press, Cambridge 2005, ISBN 0-7456-1814-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Dankwart Rustow in the catalog of the German National Library
• Multiple Calls in Armin K. Nolting Democracy Promotion (PDF download)
• Dankwart A. Rustow, 71, Dies; Professor and Middle East Expert . In: The New York Times, August 5, 1996.