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G12 UCSP PPT Lesson 3
G12 UCSP PPT Lesson 3
Democratization
There is a general tendency to assume that "democracy" refers to
a fairly static concept and, by corollary, that "democratization"
represents the process of approaching this "democracy."
First, Dahl limits the scope of his concept of "democracy" to a
description of "the fundamental principle of a political regime."
According to him, the degree of democracy is formally defined
based on two measurable factors: namely, the degree of
citizen participation in the political process (political equality)
and the degree of acceptance of public contestation (political
freedom).
Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution
Emphasis is placed on "free and fair elections" as one
opportunity of the various civil liberties and political
rights.
Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution
However, it is important to remember that, if we define "politics"
as "decisions that impact all members of a given social group," the
democracy and democratization, which are related to "how things
are decided" and are embodied in "elections," can be distilled
simply to the process of "choosing of those who decide.“
Cultural and Sociopolitical Evolution
In other words, if we consider the countless possibilities in a
diverse society of what decisions are, how these are made, and
the manner of involvement, "democracy" or "democratization,"
which tends to be reduced simply to "elections," captures only
one of the many important political aspects of a society.