Academic literature on the topic 'Democratic regression'

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2015.<br>ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis seeks to advance the understanding of Zimbabwe’s current political situation and how it has regressed towards authoritarianism. The assumption when initially embarking on this research assignment was that Zimbabwe’s political failures over the past three and a half decades since its independence in 1980 could be traced back to its original Constitution – the Lancaster House Constitution of 1979. The research in this thesis is guided by a central question: Has Zimbabwe’s failure to successfully institutionalise democratic institutions, in particular through the 1979 Constitution, contributed to its regression to authoritarianism, despite its initial democratic transition? This question is substantiated by way of four sub-questions: • What processes lead from democratic transition to authoritarianism? • What are the institutional prerequisites for democratic development? • How was Zimbabwe’s Lancaster Constitution negotiated? • Did Zimbabwe’s institutional framework set it up for failure? In order to answer the research questions, a descriptive and exploratory study with emphasis on a case study was conducted by drawing from both secondary as well as primary sources of data. The primary data examined is a compilation of original documents belonging to the late Leo Baron, former Acting Chief Justice of Zimbabwe (1983) and lawyer to Joshua Nkomo. These documents include a personal record and interviews previously conducted in 1983 for the national archives of Zimbabwe between Baron and the state, an original ZAPU document titled Proposals for a settlement in Southern Rhodesia as well as the original Lancaster House Constitution of 1979. This thesis used democratic consolidation as a theoretical framework to assess the processes that lead from democratic transition to authoritarianism as well as the institutional prerequisites for democratic development. By exploring the field of democratic consolidation, the author settled upon two analytical frameworks for this research assignment. The first is that of Kapstein and Converse, who argue that in order for a democracy to be effective the power of the executive needs to be successfully constrained. They contend that if the executive faces sufficient constraints only then is it accountable to the electorate. Secondly, this thesis focuses largely on the institutional framework developed by Dahl, which highlights a set of criteria underlining the political institutions necessary for a country to transition into a successful democracy. The key findings are that, firstly, Zimbabwe’s Lancaster Constitution was not the product of an inclusive and participatory process; instead it has been discovered that the process was one that lacked public participation and thus lacked wider legitimacy. It can thus be argued that the Lancaster House Conference, normally regarded as the platform upon which Zimbabwe’s negotiated transition to majority rule took place, was in fact not a negotiation at all; instead it resembled more of a handover of power with forced implications and unrealistic expectations. And secondly, that the Lancaster Constitution of 1979 did not sufficiently provide for a democratic political institutional framework for democratic development in Zimbabwe. Instead it failed to highlight the importance of, and make provision for, several important independent organs usually responsible for the smooth transition towards democratisation and the eventual consolidation of democracy.<br>AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis beoog om ‘n dieper begrip van Zimbabwe se huidige politieke situasie aan te bied, asook die reprogressie na outoritarisme. Die aanvanklike aanname met die begin van hierdie studie was dat Zimbabwe se politieke mislukkings oor die afgelope drie en ‘n half dekades, sedert Zimbabwe se onafhanklikheid in 1980, terugspoor na die oorspronklike Grondwet naamlik – die Lancaster House Grondwet van 1979. Die navorsing in hierdie tesis is deur ‘n sentrale vraag gelei: Het Zimbabwe se mislukking om suksesvol demokratiese instellings te institusionaliseer, in besonder die Grondwet van 1979, bygedrae tot die regressie na outoritarisme, ten spyte van die aanvanklike demokratiese oorgang? Hierdie vraag word gestaaf deur vier sub-vrae: • Watter prosesse is gelei van demokratiese oorgang na outoritarisme? • Wat is die institusionele voorvereistes vir demokratiese ontwikkeling? • Hoe was Zimbabwe se Lancaster Grondwet beding? • Het Zimbabwe se institusionele raamwerk homself vir mislukking opgestel? Om in staat te wees om die bogenoemde navorsingsvrae te beantwoord, was ‘n beskrywende en verkennende studie met die klem op ‘n gevalle studie gedoen, deur data van beide sekondêre sowel as primêre bronne te trek. Die primere data wat geondersoek is, was ‘n samestelling van oorspronklike dokumente uit die besit van oorlede Leo Baron, voormalige Waarnemende Hoof Regter van Zimbabwe en prokureur van Joshua Nkomo. Hierdie dokumente sluit in ‘n persoonlike rekord asook onderhoude gevoer in 1983 vir die nationale argiewe van Zimbabwe tussen Baron en die staat. Hiermee saam volg ‘n oorspronklike ZAPU dokument getiteld Proposals for settlement in Southern Rhodesia asook die oorspronklike Lancaster House Konstitusie van 1979. Hierdie tesis gebruik demokratiese konsolidasie as ‘n teoretiese raamwerk waardeer die prosesse wat gelei het van demokratiese oorgang na outoritarisme, asook die institusionele voorvereistes vir demokratiese ontwikkeling, beoordeel word. Deur die veld van demokratiese konsolidasie te verken, het die outeur haar studie op twee analitiese raamwerke gevestig. Die eerste is die van Kapstein en Converse wat argumenteer dat vir ‘n demokrasie om effektief te wees, moet die mag van die uitvoerder beperk word. Hulle beweer dat slegs indien die uitvoerder voldoende beperkinge het, die kiesers dit as verantwoordelik erken. Tweedens fokus hierdie tesis grootliks op die institusionele raamwerk wat deur Dahl ontwikkel is. Dahl beklemtoon ‘n stel kriteria wat die nodige politieke grondwette vir ‘n land onderstreep om ‘n suksesvolle oorgang na demokrasie te verkry. Die sleutel bevindings is dit, Zimbabwe se Lancaster Grondwet was nie die produk van ‘n insluitende en deelnemende proses nie; in stede was dit bevind dat dit ‘n proses was van gebrekkige publieke deelname en dus het weier legitimiteit ontbreek. Daar kan dus geargumenteer word dat die Lancaster House Konferensie, wat normaalweg beskou is as die platform waarop Zimbabwe se oorgang tot meerderheid oorheers geonderhandel is, was in werklikheid nooit ‘n onderhandeling nie; instede blyk dit meer in gestalte na ‘n oorhandiging van mag met geforseerde implikasies en onrealistiese vereistes. Tweedens, dat die Lancaster Grondwet van 1979 nie daarin voldoen het om ‘n suksesvolle politieke institutionele raamwerk vir demokratiese ontwikkeling in Zimbabwe neer te lê nie. Eerder het dit daarin misluk om die belangrikheid van verskeie onafhanklike noodsaaklike organe uit te lig, of te voorsien, wat normaalweg verantwoordelik is vir ‘n gladde oorgang tot demokrasie en uit eindelik konsolidasie van demokrasie.

In some of the most established and supposedly immutable liberal democracies, diverse social groups are losing con fi dence not only in established democratic institutions, but in the idea of liberal representative democracy itself. Meanwhile, an illiberal and anti-egalitarian transformation of democracy evolves at an apparently unstoppable pace. This democratic fatigue syndrome , the present article suggests, is qualitatively di ff erent from the crises of Democracy which have been debated for some considerable time. Focusing on mature democracies underpinned by the ideational tradition of European Enlightenment, the article theorizes this Syndrome and the striking transformation of democracy in terms of a dialectic process in which the very norm that once gave birth to the democratic project - the modernist idea of the autonomous subject - metamorphoses into its gravedigger, or at least into the driver of its radical reformulation. The article further develops aspects of my existing work on second-order emancipation and simulative democracy . Taking a theoretical rather than empirical approach, it aims to provide a conceptual framework for more empirically oriented analyses of changing forms of political articulation and participation.

Cette thèse s'inscrit dans le domaine de l'économie politique et se compose de quatre essais abordant différentes questions de recherche dans ce domaine. Les deux premiers chapitres adoptent une perspective macroéconomique. Le premier chapitre examine l'impact des rivalités interétatiques sur l'occurrence des guerres civiles, en distinguant les effets des rivaux directs et indirects et en démontrant leur importance respective dans l'explication de ces conflits. Le deuxième chapitre s'intéresse au processus de régression démocratique, c'est-à-dire aux changements de régime opposés à la démocratisation, qui conduisent à des situations moins démocratiques ou plus autocratiques. Après avoir fourni un large aperçu historique de la dynamique et des formes de régression démocratique dans le monde, nous proposons une nouvelle approche pour identifier et classer ces régressions démocratiques. Dans les chapitres 3 et 4, notre analyse se concentre sur les préférences économiques et politiques de la population taïwanaise au niveau microéconomique. Dans le chapitre 3, nous étudions la demande de populisme à Taïwan en relation avec les préférences individuelles concernant le statut politique de Taïwan par rapport à la Chine continentale. Notre objectif est d'évaluer l'influence potentielle de ces préférences sur le développement des attitudes populistes et d'identifier celles qui ont le plus d'effet. Dans le quatrième chapitre, nous examinons les croyances néolibérales et les préférences politiques de la classe moyenne taïwanaise. Nous cherchons à savoir si l'appartenance à la classe moyenne est un facteur prédictif des attitudes néolibérales et si ces préférences économiques sont homogènes au sein de la classe moyenne taïwanaise<br>This thesis falls in the field of political economy and consists of four essays addressing different research questions in this area. The first two chapters ADOPT a macroeconomic perspective. The first chapter examines the impact of interstate rivalries on the occurrence of civil wars, distinguishing between the effects of direct and indirect rivals and demonstrating their respective importance in explaining these conflicts. The second chapter looks at the process of democratic regression, the regime changes opposite to democratization, leading to less democratic or more autocratic situations. After providing a broad historical account of the dynamics and forms of democratic regression around the world, we propose a new approach to identify and classify these democratic regressions. In Chapters 3 and 4, our analysis focuses on the economic and political preferences of the Taiwanese population at the micro level. In Chapter 3, we study the demand for populism in Taiwan in relation to individual preferences regarding Taiwan's political status relative to mainland China. Our aim is to assess the potential influence of these preferences on the development of populist attitudes and to identify those that have the greatest effect. In the fourth chapter, we examine neoliberal beliefs and political preferences among the Taiwanese middle class. We investigate whether middle-class membership is a predictor of neoliberal attitudes, and whether these economic preferences are homogeneous within the Taiwanese middle class

The United Nation has declared a number of articles that protect human rights and with those articles imposing special obligations on the state to enforce these requirements. With this in mind it's not too hard to understand the democratic triumph over other regimes. The democratic regime has great theoretical and empirical support for its ability to bring higher levels of human development to citizens. This could be one of the reasons why democracy has spread over the world since the 19th century. But in recent years the importance of democracy has been questioned. The purpose of this paper is therefore to examine the connection of various democratic principles to human development. We are particularly interested in analyzing 1) if dissimilar democratic principle have any relation to human development and 2) if there are any democratic principles that tends to have a distinguishable relation to human development over recent decades. In this paper we use correlation- and regression analysis to analyze this relationship. The democratic principles are measured with the democratic components created by the V-Dem institute while human development is measured with the Human Development Index. Our findings give support to the existence of a relation between all measured democratic principles and human development. According to our findings, the democratic principle of equality has a distinguishable relationship to human development that runs over recent decades. This paper concludes the several shapes of relationships that occur between democratic principles and human development.

O objetivo primordial deste trabalho é analisar se a democracia é uma instituição política que produz resultados econômicos menos desiguais do que os regimes autoritários. A importância deste tema reside no fato que a própria promoção da democracia na agenda da política internacional tornou-se fundamental por inúmeras razões entre as quais sua suposta propensão em reduzir estas disparidades econômicas. Em primeiro lugar apresentamos no Capítulo 1 um balanço da discussão teórica e empírica a partir da qual constatamos que, a despeito do senso comum de que a democracia está relacionada a uma cidadania mais igualitária, os seus efeitos sobre a desigualdade ainda são discutíveis. Mesmo existindo um razoável consenso teórico de que os regimes democráticos devem, de alguma forma, produzir uma melhor distribuição de bens, os resultados empíricos são inconclusivos e contraditórios. Em seguida, diante de tal impasse empírico, propomos no Capítulo 2 uma reformulação da argumentação na qual entendemos que os efeitos da democracia sobre a desigualdade devem ser reinterpretados. A principal contribuição da tese reside na constatação, tanto teórica quanto empírica, de que estes efeitos são heterogêneos e interagem com o próprio nível de desigualdade, e, por conseguinte, é equivocado o suposto de que esses efeitos são homogêneos e independentes do contexto sócio-econômico da desigualdade. No Capítulo 3 apresentamos os dados e os conceitos de democracia e desigualdade. Assumimos que democracia se caracteriza como o regime político no qual os líderes competem entre si por meio de eleições e verificamos se os seus efeitos variam ao longo da própria distribuição de desigualdade econômica mensurada pelo coeficiente de GINI. Para tal análise, realizamos uma série de modelos de regressão quantílica, a metodologia adequada para avaliar o debate sobre a heterogeneidade versus homogeneidade dos efeitos. O argumento teórico, a partir do qual elabora-se a hipótese dos efeitos heterogêneos, refere-se à necessidade de uma convergência entre os interesses eleitorais dos partidos o lado da oferta e as clivagens sobre as quais uma potencial maioria dos eleitores tem interesse em ser atendido o lado da demanda por políticas públicas e plataformas. Isto posto, é 9 necessário discutir as condições que estimulam as lideranças políticas a utilizarem o problema da desigualdade econômica como argumento eleitoral e as condições nas quais surge uma demanda dos cidadãos por redistribuição via ação estatal. Somente nas sociedades mais desiguais tanto os partidos políticos têm interesse em ofertar políticas redistributivas, quanto tende a surgir no seio da cidadania uma demanda por redistribuição por parte de uma maioria de eleitores. No Capítulo 4 comprovamos empiricamente que os efeitos da competição democrática em sociedades mais desiguais são diferentes seus efeitos em sociedades mais iguais; e estes efeitos estão em direção à maior redução da desigualdade apenas nas sociedades mais desiguais. Os resultados são robustos às mais diferentes especificações dos modelos estatísticos, dados e formas de mensuração, tanto de democracia quanto de desigualdade, em diferentes cortes temporais e horizontes históricos de análise. Inclusive quando estendemos o recorte temporal para antes do pós-2ª Guerra Mundial utilizando dados que abrangem o período de surgimento dos primeiros regimes representativos democráticos no século XIX, a veracidade das hipóteses dos efeitos heterogêneos e de que há maior contundência da democracia em direção à redução da desigualdade nas sociedades mais desiguais permanece. Por fim, além deste problema teórico e empírico de crucial importância, também controlamos a análise para a potencial relação recíproca entre democracia e desigualdade. Enquanto parte da literatura discute os potenciais efeitos igualitários da democracia, outra importante literatura debate se o aumento da desigualdade aumenta ou reduz a probabilidade de um país tornar-se ou manter-se democrático. Posto isto, apresentamos uma lista de variáveis instrumentais para estimar validamente os efeitos da democracia sobre a desigualdade independente da relação entre desigualdade e democracia<br>The primary aim of this study is to analyze whether democracy is a political institution that produces less unequal economic outcomes than authoritarian regimes. The importance of this issue lies in the fact that the very promotion of democracy in the international political agenda has become essential for many reasons, including its supposed propensity to reduce economic disparities. First, at Chapter 1 we overview the theoretical and empirical discussion from which we find that despite the common sense that democracy must be related to a more egalitarian citizenship, its effects on inequality is still debatable. Even with a reasonable theoretical consensus that democracies must somehow produce a better distribution of goods; the empirical results are inconclusive and contradictory. After that, facing such empirical impasse, we propose at Chapter 2 a reformulation about the rationale to explain and analyze the effects of democracy on inequality. The main contribution of this thesis lies in both the theoretical and the empirical claim that these effects are heterogeneous and should interact with the level of inequality and, therefore, the assumption that these effects are homogeneous and independent of the socio-economic context of inequality is wrong. In Chapter 3, we present the data and concepts of democracy and inequality. We assume that democracy is characterized as a political regime in which leaders compete through elections and we test whether the effects vary along the distribution of economic inequality measured by the Gini coefficient. To do that, we conducted a series of quantile regression models, appropriate to evaluate the alternative hypothesis whether the effects are heterogeneous or homogenous. The theoretical argument, from which we elaborate the hypothesis of heterogeneous effects, refers to the need for a convergence between the electoral interests of the parties - the supply side - and the political cleavages on which a majority of voters have potential interest being played - the demand side for other public policies and platforms. Hence, it is necessary to discuss the conditions that lead the political leadership to use the problem of economic 11 inequality as an electoral argument and the conditions under which a demand by citizens for redistribution via state action rises. Only at the most unequal societies the political parties have an interest in offering redistributive policies, as well as there is a higher propensity for a redistribution demand by a majority of voters. In Chapter 4, we proved empirically that the effects of democratic competition at more unequal societies are different from the effects of democracy in more equal societies; and these effects tend to be greater toward inequality reduction only at more unequal societies. These results are robust to different statistical model specifications, data and measurement methods, about both democracy and inequality, and to the use of different time horizons. Even when we extend the time frame of the analysis to the period before World War II - using new data that covers XIX century, the veracity of the hypotheses about the heterogeneous effects and that these effects of democracy toward the reduction of inequality are larger at the most unequal societies remains intact. Finally, beyond this theoretical and empirical issue of crucial importance, we also control the analysis for potential reciprocal relationship between democracy and inequality. This is because while much of the literature discusses the potential effects of egalitarian democracy, another important literature debate discusses whether greater inequality increases or reduces the probability of a country become or remain democratic. Hence, we present a list of valid instrumental variables to estimate the effects of democracy on inequality independent of the relationship between inequality and democracy

The aim of this study was to analyze the salience of issue dimensions in the Swedish parliament debates by the established parties during the rise of the Sweden Democrats Party (SD). Structural topic modeling was used to construct a measurement of the salience of issues, examining the full body of speeches in the Swedish parliament between September 2006 and December 2019. Trend analysis revealed a realignment from a focus on socio-economic to socio-cultural issues in Swedish politics. Cross-correlation analyses had conflicting results, indicating a weak positive relationship between the salience of issues and the support of SD – but low predictive ability; it also showed that changes in the support of SD did lead (precede) changes in the salience of issues in the parliament. The ramifications of socio-cultural issues being the most salient are that so-called radical right-wing populist parties (RRPs), or neo-nationalist parties, has a greater opportunity to gain support. It can make voters more inclined to base their voting decision on socio-cultural issues, which favors parties who fight for and are trustworthy in those issues – giving them more valence in the eyes of the voters.

Le contrôle des parlements nationaux envers les affaires européennes a récemment reçu beaucoup d’attention autant des institutions de l’Union européenne (UE) que des auteurs participant à la littérature sur le déficit démocratique. Pour autant, si plusieurs travaux ont démontré comment ce contrôle pouvait contribuer à améliorer la médiatisation des enjeux européens ou encore la transposition des directives, son rôle sur les attitudes des citoyens tient souvent du postulat et n’a jusqu’à présent fait l’objet d’aucune recherche. En mobilisant les données issues du projet Observatory of National Parliaments after Lisbon (OPAL) récoltées entre 2010 et 2012, cette étude adopte une méthodologie quantitative avec pour ambition de mesurer l’influence que le contrôle parlementaire des affaires européennes pourrait avoir dans la formation des attitudes envers l’UE. Étant donné que les attitudes envers le niveau national et européen sont étroitement reliées, nous avons en premier lieu démontré que le contrôle parlementaire participait à renforcer la confiance envers le parlement national. En ce qui concerne le niveau européen, nos résultats indiquent que le contrôle parlementaire semble avoir un effet antagoniste sur la confiance envers l’UE avec d’une part la capacité institutionnelle des parlements ayant un effet positif, et d’autre part l’activité parlementaire ayant un effet négatif. Cette recherche, bien qu’exploratoire et donc perfectible, pose ainsi les bases d’une meilleure compréhension du rôle que pourraient jouer les parlements nationaux dans la formation des attitudes envers l’UE.<br>The oversight of national parliaments over European affairs has recently received a great deal of attention, both from institutions of the European Union (EU) and from authors contributing to the literature on the democratic deficit. However, while several studies have shown how this control could contribute positively to the media coverage of European issues or to the transposition of directives, its role on citizens' attitudes is often postulated and has so far not been demonstrated. By mobilizing data from the Observatory of National Parliaments after Lisbon (OPAL) project collected between 2010 and 2012, this study adopts a quantitative methodology with the ambition of measuring the influence that parliamentary oversight over European affairs could have in shaping attitudes towards the EU. Since attitudes towards the national and European level are closely linked, I first demonstrated that parliamentary oversight helps to build confidence in the national parliament. Regarding the European level, the results indicate that parliamentary control seems to have an antagonistic effect on trust in the EU; on the one hand, the institutional capacity of parliaments have a positive effect, and on the other hand, the parliamentary activity has a negative effect. This research, although exploratory and therefore preliminary, thus lays the foundations for a better understanding of the role that national parliaments could potentially play in shaping attitudes towards the EU.

One of the most notable empirical evidence in political economy is the relationship between per capita income and democracy. Therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to understand the real influence and impact of democracy on the income level the population and how it will or will not influence the lifestyle of populations in different countries. The final sample corresponds to a total of 7 countries with different characteristics, either in terms of electoral regime or economic growth. Throughout the different existing studies, it was also found that some commonly known variables, such as savings rates, trade opening, among others, were influenced by the political region of each country. All analysis were performed based on econometric methods, including the multivariate autoregressive model, with the help of the STATA program. In addition to testing only the influence of the two main variables, this study also aims to show whether there is an impact of variables that refer to the sociocultural characteristics of the countries. One of the important results of this analysis is that the influence is unidirectional, that is, the real GDP variable, in no country, influences democracy, although some articles in the literature show this impact. On the other hand, countries like Portugal and Tunisia have more variables that the democratic level becomes implicative, whether in terms of the population's education level or interactions with international trade.<br>Uma das evidências empíricas mais notáveis na economia política é a relação entre rendimento per capita e democracia. Por isso, o principal objetivo desta dissertação é perceber qual a real influência e impacto da democracia no nível de rendimento da população e de como esta terá ou não influenciado o estilo de vida das populações, em diferentes países. A amostra usada neste estudo corresponde a um total de 7 países com diferentes caraterísticas, quer a nível do regime eleitoral como de crescimento. Ao longo dos diferentes estudos, também foi evidenciado que algumas variáveis comumente conhecidas, como taxas de poupança, abertura comercial, entre outras, foram influenciadas pelo regime político de cada país. Toda a análise foi feita baseada em métodos econométricos, incluindo o modelo multivariado autorregressivo, com a ajuda do programa STATA.Para além de testar somente a influência das duas variáveis principais, este estudo pretende também evidenciar se existe impacto de variáveis que sejam referentes as características socioculturais dos países. Um dos resultados importantes desta análise é a influência ser unidirecional, ou seja, a variável PIB real, em nenhum país, influencia a democracia, embora alguns artigos na literatura mostrem esse impacto. Por outro lado, países como Portugal e Tunísia, têm mais variáveis que o nível democrático se torna implicativo, seja no nível de escolaridade da população ou as interações com o comércio internacional.