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Chapter 22: Comparative Political Systems Section 3. Objectives. Understand how regimes can change from dictatorship to democracy. Describe the fall of the Soviet Union. Explain the factors necessary for democratic consolidation to take place.
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Objectives • Understand how regimes can change from dictatorship to democracy. • Describe the fall of the Soviet Union. • Explain the factors necessary for democratic consolidation to take place. • Analyze why some countries experience setbacks or failed transitions to democracy.
Key Terms • hard-liners:those who fight to maintain the status quo • soft-liners:those who want to reform the policies of the current government • democratization:the change from dictatorship to democracy • democratic consolidation:a process that occurs as a country firmly establishes factors needed to sustain a democracy
Key Terms, cont. • genocide:the attempted extermination of a cultural, racial, or national group • failed states:governments that have little control over large sections of their own territory and which face severe economic, educational, health, and security challenges
Introduction • How successfully have some nations achieved democratic government? • Some countries like Russia achieved formal democracy, but retain some aspects of dictatorships. • Other countries, such as Iraq, are just beginning to develop democratic systems. • A large group of countries, like Somalia, have tried but failed to create working democracies, leading to failed states.
Openings for Democracy • Democracies tend to emerge in waves across the world and the number of democracies has increased over time. • Many democracies replace failed dictatorships, which have limited basic rights. • People living under dictatorships may question why they do not enjoy the freedoms of people living in democracies. • Internal splits between hard-liners and soft-liners can also divide a dictatorship. • Individual reformers like Lech Walesa in Poland and Vaclav Havel in Czechoslovakia have also helped bring about democratic changes.
Fall of the Soviet Union • The fall of the Soviet Union was the result of a series of events, including: • The fall of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Germany • The collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe
Fall of the Soviet Union, cont. • Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was a reformer in the 1980s. • His perestroikapolicy restructured Soviet political and economic life, while glasnost allowed more freedom of expression. • The USSR fell apart in 1991 after Boris Yeltsin became president of Russia and challenged a military coup by hard-liners. • Russia created a new constitution that set up a democratic republic with protections for individual rights.
Independent Russia • Vladimir Putin (below, far right) became Russian president in 1999. He limited civil liberties, gave the presidency more power, won questionable elections, and picked his own successor in 2007. • Russia’s economy has improved, but it may once again be a dictatorship.
Democratic Consolidation • Checkpoint: What is democratic consolidation? • Democratic consolidation is the process by which a country establishes a sense of common trust among its citizens, which enables them to support a long-term democracy. • Key factors include the creation of a free press, a multiparty system, a fair economic system, and a professional civil service, as well as establishing civilian control of the military.
Haiti • The process of democratization in the Caribbean nation of Haiti has been difficult. • The Duvalier dictatorship ended with the election of President Aristide in 1990, but after being overthrown and returning to power, he became a dictator himself. • Currently Haiti is ruled by a provisional government and a UN peacekeeping force. The country suffers widespread poverty and lawlessness.
Iraq • The United States overthrew Iraq’s dictatorship in 2003 and has since faced great challenges trying to establish a democracy there. • There are few democratic or cultural traditions to unify Iraq’s Shia and Sunni religious groups and its ethnic Kurds. • In 2005, Iraqis did elect a parliament that drafted a democratic constitution approved by the people.
Divisions in Iraq • A large majority of Iraq’s inhabitants are Muslim, but they adhere to different forms of Islam, belong to many different ethnic groups, and speak different languages. • How can religious and linguistic divides pose challenges for a new democracy?
Setbacks • Some countries attempt democracy and fail, becoming threats to other countries. • Ethnic violence erupted when the country of Yugoslavia broke apart in the late 1980s. • Bosnia-Herzegovina was attacked by Serbia and Croatia and nearly 200,000 civilians suffered genocide before NATO stepped in to stop the fighting.
Failed States • Countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, and Somalia cannot control large parts their own territory. • In such failed states, the economy struggles and the government provides little security, healthcare, or education for the people. • International terrorist groups have found refuge in failed states. • Al Qaeda set up bases in Afghanistan from which they struck at the United States in 2001.
Review • Now that you have learned about how successfully some nations have achieved democratic government, go back and answer the Chapter Essential Question. • How should you measure different governments?
