Like I said. I know what a democratic transition is. Fairly self explanatory. But what the HELL is a ‘model’ one? I mean, can such a thing even exist given how inherently different every transition has been?
This one is really bugging me, and google was no help.
Where is the term used? I’ve often heard “model for democratic transition”, as in “Morrocco is a model for democratic transition in the MENA region”. In that case all that means is that Morocco’s transition to democracy went well, and is an example of how a country in MENA can become democratic.
Democratic transition: a fouled-up series of events that turned out okay.
Model democratic transition: No bloodshed.
Seriously, though, I’m pretty familiar with political science and diplomatic history, and although I’m hardly an expert on comparative politics, I don’t believe the term “model democratic transition” has any specific academic or policy meaning that would distinguish it from, say, a “great,” a “successful,” or a “smooth” democratic transition.
Well it’s part of something I’m reading, and it refers to the ‘model’ prescribed by the vast literature on democratic transitions.
Ive read quite a bit on democratic transitions, but I wasn’t aware there was a model per se.
Or maybe I did and didn’t know it was? argh… Im hopping mad!
As others have said, you don’t really give a context for this. But I think we can get some idea of what this means by looking at the number of failed democratic transitions that have happened over time.
You know the ones. A democratic government is established to replace a previously autocratic government. The newly-elected ruler institutes a set of “temporary” measures to secure it during the fragile transition time, so as not to be undone by insurgents from the previous regime, etc. But the restictions never go away, and the new ruler settles in as the new autocrat.
A model democratic transition would be the opposite of that.
To extend this a bit, I saw a very interesting article that pointed out that *the greatest * thing that George Washington did is almost completely ignored by us now. That is, at the end of his term as president, he stepped down and went home.
We take this orderly transition of power for granted now, but it was entirely unprecendented a the time and it set the precedent that has benefitted the whole world. And events since that time show us that it’s not guaranteed to happen in a new democracy.
Looking at it this way gave me a lot of new-found respect for him.
What’s the book? Depending on it’s political slant, it might help nail down what model they may be referring to.