Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. The opposite process of democratic transition is known as democratic backsliding or autocratization. Whether and to what extent democratization occurs can be influenced by various factors, including economic development, historical legacies, civil society, and international processes. Some accounts of democratization emphasize how elites drove democratization, whereas other accounts emphasize grassroots bottom-up processes. How democratization occurs has also been used to explain other political phenomena, such as whether a country goes to a war or whether its economy grows.
Description
Theories of democratization seek to explain a large macro-level change of a political regime from authoritarianism to democracy. Symptoms of democratization include reform of the electoral system, increased suffrage and reduced political apathy.
Measures of democratization Democracy indices enable the quantitative assessment of democratization. Some common democracy indices are Freedom House, Polity data series, V-Dem Democracy indices, and Democracy Index. Democracy indices can be quantitative or categorical. Some disagreements among scholars concern the concept of democracy and how to measure democracy, and what democracy indices should be used.
Waves of democratization
One way to summarize the outcome theories of democratization seek to account is with the idea of waves of democratization. A wave of democratization refers to a major surge of democracy in history. Samuel P. Huntington identified three waves of democratization that have taken place in history. The first one brought democracy to Western Europe and North America in the 19th century. It was followed by a rise of dictatorships during the Interwar period. The second wave began after World War II, but lost steam between 1962 and the mid-1970s. The latest wave began in 1974 and is still ongoing. Democratization of Latin America and the former Eastern Bloc is part of this third wave. Waves of democratization can be followed by waves of de-democratization. In 1991, Huntington offered the following depiction:
First wave of democratization, 1828–1926 First wave of de-democratization, 1922–1942 Second wave of democratization, 1943–1962 Second wave of de-democratization, 1958–1975 Third wave of democratization, 1974–
The idea of waves of democratization has been used and scrutinized by many other authors, including Renske Doorenspleet,Renske Doorenspleet, "Reassessing the Three Waves of Democratization." World Politics 52(3) 2000: 384–406. John Markoff,John Markoff, Waves of Democracy: Social Movements and Political Change, Second Edition. New York: Routledge, 2015. Seva Gunitsky, and Svend-Erik Skaaning. According to Seva Gunitsky, from the 18th century to the Arab Spring (2011–2012), 13 democratic waves can be identified.
By country
Throughout the history of democracy, enduring democracy advocates succeed almost always through peaceful means when there is a window of opportunity. One major type of opportunity include governments weakened after a violent shock. The other main avenue occurs when autocrats are not threatened by elections, and democratize while retaining power. The path to democracy can be long with setbacks along the way.
The V-Dem Institute found ongoing democratization during the year 2025 in 18 countries: Benin, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Lesotho, Mauritius, Montenegro, Poland, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, Thailand, The Gambia, and Zambia.
Athens
Benin
Brazil
Chile
France The French Revolution (1789) briefly allowed a wide franchise. The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars lasted for more than twenty years. The French Directory was more oligarchic. The First French Empire and the Bourbon Restoration restored more autocratic rule. The French Second Republic had universal male suffrage but was followed by the Second French Empire. The Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) resulted in the French Third Republic.
Germany Germany established its first democracy in 1919 with the creation of the Weimar Republic, a parliamentary republic created following the German Empire's defeat in World War I. The Weimar Republic lasted only 14 years before it collapsed and was replaced by Nazi dictatorship.Stefan Berger, "The Attempt at Democratization under Weimar" in European Democratization since 1800. Eds. John Garrard, Vera Tolz & Ralph White (Springer, 2000), pp. 96–115. Historians continue to debate the reasons why the Weimar Republic's attempt at democratization failed. After Germany was militarily defeated in World War II, democracy was reestablished in West Germany during the U.S.-led occupation which undertook the denazification of society.Richard L. Merritt, Democracy Imposed: U.S. Occupation Policy and the German Public, 1945–1949 (Yale University Press, 1995).
Greece
Indonesia
Italy
In September 1847, violent riots inspired by Liberals broke out in Reggio Calabria and in Messina in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which were put down by the military. On 12 January 1848 a rising in Palermo spread throughout the island and served as a spark for the Revolutions of 1848 all over Europe. After similar revolutionary outbursts in Salerno, south of Naples, and in the Cilento region which were backed by the majority of the intelligentsia of the Kingdom, on 29 January 1848 King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies was forced to grant a constitution, using for a pattern the French Charter of 1830. This constitution was quite advanced for its time in liberal democratic terms, as was the proposal of a unified Italian confederation of states. On 11 February 1848, Leopold II of Tuscany, first cousin of Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, granted the Constitution, with the general approval of his subjects. The Habsburg example was followed by Charles Albert of Sardinia through the Albertine Statute, which later became the constitution of the unified Kingdom of Italy and remained in force, with changes, until 1948, and by Pope Pius IX through the Fundamental Statute; however, only King Charles Albert maintained the statute even after the end of the riots.
The Kingdom of Italy, after the unification of Italy in 1861, was a constitutional monarchy. The new kingdom was governed by a parliamentary constitutional monarchy dominated by liberals. The Italian Socialist Party increased in strength, challenging the traditional liberal and conservative establishment. From 1915 to 1918, the Kingdom of Italy took part in World War I on the side of the Entente and against the Central Powers. In 1922, following a period of crisis and turmoil, the Italian fascist dictatorship was established. During World War II, Italy was first part of the Axis until it surrendered to the Allied powers (1940–1943) and then, as part of its territory was occupied by Nazi Germany with fascist collaboration, a co-belligerent of the Allies during the Italian resistance and the subsequent Italian Civil War, and the liberation of Italy (1943–1945). The aftermath of World War II left Italy also with an anger against the monarchy for its endorsement of the Fascist Italy regime for the previous twenty years. These frustrations contributed to a revival of the Italian republican movement. Italy became a republic after the 1946 Italian institutional referendum, held on 2 June, a day celebrated since as Festa della Repubblica. Italy has a written democratic constitution, resulting from the work of a Constituent Assembly formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the liberation of Italy and the Italian Civil War,Smyth, Howard McGaw Italy: From Fascism to the Republic (1943–1946) The Western Political Quarterly vol. 1 no. 3 (pp. 205–222), September 1948. and coming into force on 1 January 1948.
Japan In Japan, limited democratic reforms were introduced during the Meiji period (when the industrial modernization of Japan began), the Taishō period (1912–1926), and the early Shōwa period.Kent E. Calder, "East Asian Democratic Transitions" in The Making and Unmaking of Democracy: Lessons from History and World Politics (eds. Theodore K. Rabb & Ezra N. Suleiman: Routledge, 2003). pp. 251–59. Despite pro-democracy movements such as the Freedom and People's Rights Movement (1870s and 1880s) and some proto-democratic institutions, Japanese society remained constrained by a highly conservative society and bureaucracy. Historian Kent E. Calder notes that writers that "Meiji leadership embraced constitutional government with some pluralist features for essentially tactical reasons" and that pre-World war II Japanese society was dominated by a "loose coalition" of "landed rural elites, big business, and the military" that was averse to pluralism and reformism. While the Imperial Diet survived the impacts of Japanese militarism, the Great Depression, and the Pacific War, other pluralistic institutions, such as political parties, did not. After World War II, during the Allied occupation, Japan adopted a much more vigorous, pluralistic democracy.
Madagascar
Malawi
Latin America Countries in Latin America became independent between 1810 and 1825, and soon had some early experiences with representative government and elections. All Latin American countries established representative institutions soon after independence, the early cases being those of Colombia in 1810, Paraguay and Venezuela in 1811, and Chile in 1818.Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 47. Adam Przeworski shows that some experiments with representative institutions in Latin America occurred earlier than in most European countries.Adam Przeworski and Henry Teune, Democracy and the Limits of Self-Government. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 2; Przeworski, Adam, "The Mechanics of Regime Instability in Latin America." Journal of Politics in Latin America 1(1) 2009: 5–36. Mass democracy, in which the working class had the right to vote, become common only in the 1930s and 1940s.Collier, Ruth Berins, and David Collier. Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991; Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Evelyne Huber Stephens, and John D. Stephens, Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992; Collier, Ruth Berins, Paths Toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1999; Drake, Paul W.. Between Tyranny and Anarchy: A History of Democracy in Latin America, 1800–2006. Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2009.
Portugal
Philippines
In 1986, democratic institutions throughout the Philippines were reinstated during the deposition of the 20-year long Marcos regime through the People Power Revolution.