Third Wave of Democracy
Jihad Van Rooyen Word Count: 308, excluding in-text citations
POL1004F: Introduction to Politics, Tutorial Group #11
25 April 2014
Third Wave of Democracy
Third World democracies are declining and an influential authoritarian state like North Korea shows no sign of democratization. Therefore, Liberal and democratic stagnation could signal the end of the third wave of democracy, unless reserve wave prevention policies are implemented.
A wave of democratization is a period of time where countries move from nondemocratic values to a democratic regime (Diamond, 1996: 20). In the modern world there have been three recorded “waves” (Huntington, 1993:15). According to Diamond (1996), the first two waves ended in a “reverse wave”. The reverse wave results in the reduction of democracies around the world. Furthermore, reserve waves can greatly limit political liberation and rights. Therefore, it is imperative that steps should be taken by political figureheads to prevent a reserve wave from happening, through legitimistic policies.
Since the inception of the third wave in 1974, the proportion of global democracies has risen sharply especially in the 1990’s, owing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eastern European communism and sub-Saharan Africa liberation (Diamond, 1996:26). However, with the continued growth of democracy, there has been a current stagnation of liberal democracy in recent times, which validates the amassed triviality of democratization in the receding third wave (Diamond, 1996:28). The global receding wave trends are clearly evident in the increasing of disorder, human rights desecrations, jurisdictive inefficacy, corruption and military immunity (Diamond, 1996:30); these can clearly be seen in third-wave democratic countries like Egypt, North Korea and Greece.
In conclusion, it can be said that the democratic world has entered a period of
POL1004F: Introduction to Politics, Tutorial Group #11
25 April 2014
Third Wave of Democracy
Third World democracies are declining and an influential authoritarian state like North Korea shows no sign of democratization. Therefore, Liberal and democratic stagnation could signal the end of the third wave of democracy, unless reserve wave prevention policies are implemented.
A wave of democratization is a period of time where countries move from nondemocratic values to a democratic regime (Diamond, 1996: 20). In the modern world there have been three recorded “waves” (Huntington, 1993:15). According to Diamond (1996), the first two waves ended in a “reverse wave”. The reverse wave results in the reduction of democracies around the world. Furthermore, reserve waves can greatly limit political liberation and rights. Therefore, it is imperative that steps should be taken by political figureheads to prevent a reserve wave from happening, through legitimistic policies.
Since the inception of the third wave in 1974, the proportion of global democracies has risen sharply especially in the 1990’s, owing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Eastern European communism and sub-Saharan Africa liberation (Diamond, 1996:26). However, with the continued growth of democracy, there has been a current stagnation of liberal democracy in recent times, which validates the amassed triviality of democratization in the receding third wave (Diamond, 1996:28). The global receding wave trends are clearly evident in the increasing of disorder, human rights desecrations, jurisdictive inefficacy, corruption and military immunity (Diamond, 1996:30); these can clearly be seen in third-wave democratic countries like Egypt, North Korea and Greece.
In conclusion, it can be said that the democratic world has entered a period of