Democratization

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Democratization is a term used in political science and sociology and describes the dismantling of non-democratically legitimized rule and the expansion and development of democracy in previously non-democratic or less democratic states or areas of society. In addition to the democratization of states and political systems , the democratization of education , the economy , religion and other areas is also required. According to Wilhelm Hennis , democratization is a “struggle for the boundary between the political and non-political realms”.

"Democratization is the epitome of all activities, the aim of which is to replace authoritarian structures of rule with forms of rule control from" below ", social participation, cooperation and - wherever possible - free self-determination ."

- Fritz Vilmar : Strategies of Democratization. P. 21

The term democratization describes on the one hand the goal, democracy, and on the other hand the process of changing social subsystems. "It is both an action definition and a goal definition of social action."

Democratization from below or from above

An example of democratization from below is the collapse of the Eastern bloc . Attempts to democratize Germany (see denazification ), Afghanistan or Iraq are seen as democratizations from above . Otfried Höffe claims that "in both case types [...] democratization only [succeeds] if, in addition to state institutions, a multi-faceted citizenship develops."

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation distinguishes between three phases to democratize a country after a conflict : the immediate development, dialogue and reconstruction and institutionalization and consolidation. Examples of such post-conflict democratization are: Bosnia-Herzegovina , Lebanon , Rwanda and South Africa . Transforming countries into democracy after a conflict is proving difficult. “In the eighteen post-war societies in which the United Nations supported democratization processes between 1988 and 2002, thirteen alone did not make the leap into a democratic state and society despite many undeniable improvements.” Buckley-Zistel concludes from these experiences that “the impetus for democratization to come from society itself ”and the“ interests of the various actors and possible conflicts must be sensitively anticipated and taken into account ”. A number of institutions support the process of democratization by promoting democracy .

Waves of democratization

Samuel P. Huntington distinguishes three waves of democratization in which more and more autocratic systems were transformed into democracies: he locates the first wave between 1828, when the majority of the white male population in the United States was entitled to vote for the first time ( Jacksonian Democracy ), and 1922, when Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy (" March on Rome "). Huntington dates the beginning of the second wave to 1943, when Mussolini's rule in Italy ended, and its end to 1962, when Jamaica gained independence from the British Crown. The third wave began to unfold in 1974, the year of the “ Carnation Revolution ” in Portugal , and slowly ebbed away in the mid-1990s. According to Wolfgang Merkel , the last wave of democratization “that began with the end of the last legal dictatorships in Western Europe (Portugal, Greece , Spain ) in the mid-1970s, continued in Latin America in the 1980s, reached East Asia, is the communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union captured and even touched some African countries, [...] unprecedented in history. ”As a rule, the socio-economic modernization processes are seen as the trigger for the waves of democratization. Their wave dynamics, on the other hand, depend on the cultural framework and the ruling power centers of the political elites.

Klaus von Beyme described the upheavals following the fall of the Iron Curtain and the collapse of the Soviet Union as the fourth wave of democratization. This comprised a total of 47 states, including the former Eastern Bloc as well as some African and Asian states such as Benin and Bangladesh .

Kenan Engin speaks of a fifth wave of democratization in the face of the Arab Spring . His thesis is based on the parallels in political developments between the third wave of democratization in Latin America and the Arab Spring. Much like recently in the Arab world, in the 1970s and 80s many Latin American dictators were overthrown by a wave of protests and replaced by elected governments.

Liberal democracies based on the rule of law have not always emerged , but rather many “ defective democracies ”. These states, also called “hybrid regimes” by Juan Linz and Alfred Stepan, occupy a position between democracy and autocracy . According to Wolfgang Merkel, there is no primary cause for this, but a bundle of causes, which defines the path of modernization, the level of modernization, the economic situation, social capital , civil society , state and national education as well as the type of authoritarian previous regime, the type of transition mode, the political institutions and must take into account the international framework. “Liberal democracies” emerged around the European Union . “The combination of market economy interests and a community of democratic values ​​makes the EU a model that is so far unique in the world.” All other organizations such as NATO , ASEAN , Mercosur or the United Nations had no comparable effect. According to Merkel, the “defective democracies” can be relatively stable regimes. "This is especially the case in societies with a low level of education , clientelist and patrimonial structures."

Democratization of Democracy

Claus Offe points out that no democracy is like another and that the demands on a democracy, the quality of a democracy, are different. On the one hand, one further differentiates between mature democracies (USA, Great Britain) and immature. On the other hand, mature democracies are decaying. Offe describes this as the “deconsolidation of liberal democracy”.

If the undisputed core of a democracy is made up of "the principles of civil liberty, political equality and, at the same time, effective and responsible government", then according to Offe, one has to consider how "democracy can be democratized".

The first principle, civil liberty , is challenged today by the fact that citizens perceive the political system as confusing. "It is the notorious cognitive overstrain of the citizens due to the complexity and often the novelty of the public matters to be decided [...]." This is increased by a lack of motivation on the part of the citizens.

The citizens do not feel political equality , the second principle, because their social power is limited in contrast to political actors who can determine the political agenda ( lobbying , etc.).

To what extent governments can still govern effectively today, the third principle, is questionable. Offe criticizes the fact that national governments surrender their power to international institutions. Furthermore, political decisions are made in non-institutionalized bodies behind closed doors. A government can thus evade political responsibility ( blame avoidance ).

Offe also calls for “accountability” from governments. "This responsibility is to be understood as two modes of communication between politics and society, which are differentiated in the finer-grained English terminology as accountability and responsibility , as a passive and active aspect of responsibility."

By accountability , Offe understands the ability of citizens to “cognitively grasp political decisions, attribute them to actors and, in the event of divergent preferences, hold these actors accountable”. The opposite is the dominance of an elite .

Under responsibility understands Offe that the leaders take responsibility for their policies, so to enforce unpopular solutions. The opposite would be responsiveness , irresponsible, populist government action .

Offe sees the solution to the above problems, and thus a democratization of democracy, in a " bottom-up communication of voting and voting, the" lateral "communication between representative actors and the top-down communication of the binding, in the form of Government decisions, legal orders and administrative orders of clothed hierarchical decision-making. "

With bottom-up communication, Offe focuses on strengthening civil society and civic engagement. “Lateral” communication is intended to improve the relationship between institutions and collective actors (e.g. party members). For example, by reforming federalism or reforming the party systems . The top-down communication should start "at the top of decision-making hierarchies" and provide for "the strengthening of autonomous, expert, long-term acting and impartial bodies, at least for a longer period of time relieved of the party conflict".

Democratization of other areas

Democracy first of all represents a political system and the concept of democratization a process that leads to the creation or intensification of democracy in political systems. In addition, however, a “democratization” of other areas of life is often called for, and the term also takes on the character of a political catchphrase or battle term . Examples are the demand for a democratization of the universities and there especially for a quarter parity . In the economic field, the introduction of economic democracy or at least the expansion of co-determination is called for. The democratization of the school should lead to the democratic school . Among other things, the Church from Below initiative calls for a democratization of the Church.

Political scientist Wilhelm Hennis criticizes the democratization of social areas outside of actual politics. In the most harmless case, the catchphrase of “democratization” is an empty shell of language, which, however, would create an unjustified drama: everyday issues would be overloaded with the fierce criticism of being undemocratic. Even more problematic is the frequent case that the structures to be “democratized” are not viewed from the perspective of their function, but that of power. For example, the purpose of a university is research and teaching. Both functions defy the majority principle. The demand for “democratization” is based on the de facto power exercised by the university professors. The control of this power through democratization, however, is in direct contrast to the requirements arising from the functioning of the institution. The greatest danger, however, is the misuse of the catchphrase to demand the elimination of all forms of inequality. Historically, there was a separation of the public and private areas in the West and constitutive for the culture of the West. While democracy, in which everyone has equal voting rights, secured freedom in the former, unequal people outside politics work freely together. The attempt to make these dissimilar ones equal is only possible “at the price of despotism”.

Democratization of the world of work

A democratization of industrial production was already one of the core demands of the labor movement in the early stages of industrialization . This was sought both in a revolutionary way and through reforms, the latter being represented by concepts such as productive cooperatives or the idea of economic democracy developed in the German trade unions in the 1920s . Some of these ideas have been put into practice by philanthropists or rebellious workforces, some with success, such as Robert Owen's commune ideas from the 19th century or the self-managed factories that have sprung up in Argentina since the 2001 crisis. At the national level only in Yugoslavia the attempt was made to democratize the enterprises of an economy nationwide with the concept of workers' self-government. The attempt came to an end with the break-up of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

Management methods are to be distinguished from the outlined ideas of economic democracy, which allow middle and managerial employees higher degrees of freedom with the aim of increasing production. The Brazilian entrepreneur Ricardo Semler , for example, has introduced democratic structures in his companies, in which subordinates regularly evaluate their superiors, employees decide for themselves how to design the workplace or the way of working or, for example, which hotel category to choose when traveling. He described his management system in the book " Das Semco System ". In contrast to cooperatives or other concepts, however, the company profit remains with the private entrepreneur Semco.

Democratization of knowledge

In the 21st century, knowledge is very quickly accessible to almost everyone in western cultures and no longer has to be laboriously gathered from libraries, which are not always accessible. Thanks to the Internet and Web 2.0 offers such as Wikipedia , anyone can acquire knowledge. Hans-Ulrich Wehler notes critically that “citizens [cannot] do anything with the flood of information if they have not learned how to deal with it. You have to choose, interpret. This requires intellectual skills that have nothing to do with technical access to the information. "

Keyword “democratization” in the Soviet Zone / GDR

In the Soviet occupation zone and later in the GDR , the catchphrase “democratization” was used to describe the harmonization of state institutions in a whitewashed way. The law for the democratization of German schools of May / June 1946 was the legal basis for the transformation of the school system in the (SBZ) into a single school dominated by the SED . The "democratization of the judiciary" led to the transformation of the GDR judiciary into the enforcement organ of the will of the ruling SED.

See also

literature

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cf. Manfred G. Schmidt : Democratization. In: ders .: Dictionary on Politics (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 404). 2nd, completely revised and expanded edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-40402-8 , p. 150.
  2. ^ Wilhelm Hennis: Democratization. To the problem of a term. In: Martin Greiffenhagen : Democratization in State and Society , Munich 1973, p. 61.
  3. ^ Fritz Vilmar: Strategies of Democratization. 1973, Volume I, p. 102.
  4. ↑ See Otfried Höffe: Economic Citizens, Citizens, World Citizens. Political Ethics in the Age of Globalization. C. H. Beck, Munich 2004, p. 10; see. also p. 93.
  5. ^ Susanne Buckley-Zistel: Democratization.
  6. ^ Susanne Buckley-Zistel: Democratization. ; see also: en: Regime change
  7. ^ Susanne Buckley-Zistel: Democratization.
  8. ^ Samuel P. Huntington: The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8061-2516-0 ; see also: en: The Third Wave of Democratization
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Merkel: "Embedded" and defective democracies: theory and empire. In: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 43ff.
  10. ^ Manfred G. Schmidt : Theories of democracy. An introduction. 5th edition, Bonn 2010, ISBN 978-3-8389-0059-9 , p. 434 .
  11. ↑ Kenan Engin: The fifth wave of democratization in the Islamic-Arab region? , April 27, 2011, accessed July 31, 2011; Ders: The Arab Spring: The 5.0 Democracy Wave , August 19, 2011, accessed February 3, 2014; Cevat Dargin: The Arab Spring and the Waves of Democracy ( September 25, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive ), September 22, 2011, accessed February 3, 2014.
  12. ↑ See Wolfgang Merkel in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 67 f.
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Merkel in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 62.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Merkel in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 71.
  15. ↑ Cf. Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 9.
  16. ^ A b Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 11.
  17. ↑ Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 12.
  18. ↑ Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 13.
  19. ^ A b Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 15.
  20. ↑ Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 16.
  21. ↑ Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 18
  22. ↑ Claus Offe in: Claus Offe, Heidrun Abromeit, Arthur Benz, Klaus von Beyme: Democratization of Democracy. Diagnoses and reform proposals. Frankfurt 2003, p. 19.
  23. ^ Heidrun Kämper : Aspects of the Democracy Discourse of the late 1960s. Constellations - contexts - concepts. De Gruyter, Berlin 2012, p. 267 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  24. ↑ Wilhelm Hennis : "Democratization". A term that is frequently used and discussed. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 14, 2012, p. N3.
  25. ↑ For an overview cf. Axel Weipert (Hrsg.): Democratization of economy and state. Studies on the relationship between economy, state and democracy from the 19th century to the present day , NoRa, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86557-331-5 ; critical to this: Michael Brie: The unsolved problem of the century: the democratization of the economy. In: Yearbook for Research on the History of the Labor Movement, Issue I / 2015.
  26. ↑ Digital democratization of knowledge. Free internet content is changing learning and business models . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . November 19, 2007.
  27. ^ The Internet from a historical perspective . Interview with Hans-Ulrich Wehler and Werner Abelshauser . In: Handelsblatt . August 22, 2001.
  28. ↑ Helmut Anders : The democratization of the judiciary when building the anti-fascist-democratic order in the GDR territory (1945-1949). Dissertation. Karl Marx University Leipzig 1972.
  29. ^ Rainer Schröder : Justice in the German States since 1933 . In: Forum Historiae Iuris. October 25, 1999.