Analysis Of The Reasons Of Democratization

Analysis Of The Reasons Of Democratization In general, the reasons of democratization shift in different countries. Samuel P. Huntington raises five main elements to explain his points of view. The author would like to examine how these five factors resulted in the democratization in South Korea and are the exclusive reasons. Besides, does China have difficulty to become a democratic country only because it lacks of these five conditions? Infection results: it means when the other countries start to call for the democracy, the countries nearby would be affected and the citizens would appeal to their government to reform and therefore forms the domino effect. For instance, the third wave in East Europe in 1990’s and the fourth wave democratization in North Africa in 2011. The collapse of the authoritarian government: when the current regime couldn’t provide the basic need of its people and maintain the order of the politics, civilians will call for the reform and even the revolution to rebuild the democratic reg ime. The collapse of USSR is one of the examples and we can see that due to its serious problem brought by the economic recession. The growth of economic system: the notion of the liberalism indicates that the boost in economic growth will create the richer middle-class which would ask for the opportunities of getting involved in politics. In this kind of situation, the social mobilization and the information will become faster to decrease the legitimacy of the authoritarian government. South Korea and Taiwan belong to this part. The choice of political leaders: one of the crucial keys come from the elites of the ruling classes, especially when the leaders become aware of the transition of the environment makes the democracy is the only cure to maintain the current regime. For instance, the former President of South Africa Frederik Willem de Klerk leaded South Africa to a democratic country. Influence of actors outside of the country: the impact of actions from foreign organizations or countries would construct the pressure to the autocratic regime. For example, the collapse of the Philippine of Marcos regime. The reasons for South Korea’s democratization The reasons for South Korea’s democratization are extensive and diversified. We can take our points of view from different angles including economic growth, social structure, political culture and the transition of history. The theory of Huntington elaborate the overall structure enables us to relate different events happened in South Korea to the factors of democratization. The author would like to use Huntington theory as the main stream to explain the reasons of democratization. We can general discover some of the elements of the theory of Huntington are the main reasons to give an impetus to the democratization but some are not. Economic growth is not necessary to become the direct element to democratization of South Korea Just like Huntington mentioned in his book of the third wave, â€Å" An overall correlation exists between the level of economic development and democracy have no level or pattern of economic development is in itself either necessary or sufficient to bring about democratization.†Ã‚   [ 1 ]   We can conclude from most of the third wave countries that the success of the democratization of third countries that there will be mass middle-class emerging before the formal democratization. This could be proved by the countries in the third wave are mostly the higher developing countries.   [ 2 ]   However, the GDP growth rate in South Korea in 1960 -1980’s is averagely 8.5-8.9%   [ 3 ]   , which is higher than lots of Latin American countries. But the time of democratization in South Korea was later than Latin American countries. This is explained by Huntington in his article in 1984 that he thought this is an exception.   [ 4 ]   To conclude, Huntington pointed out there might be two reasons; the first one is the tradition Confuci anism emphasize the structure of the social levels, authority, community, and loyalty which postponed the society’s requests of democracy, and the second reason is because the rapid economic growth happened in a relatively equal income distribution environment. However, when it reached the critical point in 1980’s, it forced South Korea to begin its democratization.   [ 5 ]