Democracy and its Discontents – 09/02
The Spread of Modern Democracy
• Democracy is very present where there is a legacy of state weakness and where rulers
need their people.
• 1st wave of democratization → beginning of 19th century, slow movement of European
states towards democracy → in an environment of mass mobilization for war, rulers
needed their people, and so universal conscription led to universal suffrage.
• 2nd wave of democratization → occurred in the wake of WW2 as European dictatorship
switched to democracy and as newly independent countries like India established
democratic constitutions.
• 3rd wave of democratization → began with the democratization of the Iberian Peninsula
(Spain and Portugal) in mid 70s, but what is most notable is the dramatic expansion in
democracy after fall of Berlin Wall in 1989.
o For instance, many African countries have become democracies since this date,
whereas we wouldn’t expect them to (too poor, too divided, too unequal to
sustain this form of governance)
• Possible explanations of why democratization happened in Europe:
o Came from American Revolution which was based on a set of radical new ideas
