Chapter 9

Regime change is the process through which countries go from one type of regime, with its particular set of institutions, to another. Older forms include military coups and social revolutions. Recently, democratization has dominated study of regime change.

Keeping the military loyal is a major challenge for both democratic and authoritarian states. Military coups d’etat are the most common and quickest form of regime change, occurring for reasons that include the military’s sense that the nation needs to be “rescued,” the military’s own interests as an organization, and the more particular interests of individual leaders or groups within the institution.

A revolution is a rapid transformation in the political system and social structure of a society that involves mass participation in extra-legal political action to overthrow the prior regime and usually includes violence. Distinctions among revolutions can be made based on the ideology that is associated with their aftermath; that is, whether a revolution results in a liberal, a Communist, or even a religious state, as in Iran’s “Islamic Revolution.” A distinction can also be drawn between revolutions from below, as was the case with most classic revolutions, and revolutions from above, as the revolutions following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall did.

The transitions to democracy by many poorer countries in the third wave of democratization raised doubts about earlier theories, which tended to emphasize wealth and an appropriate culture as the keys to democracy. Empirical studies have painted a complex picture, in which certain levels of development may be associated with an increased likelihood of democratic transition, but not in all developed states.  While older studies of Latin America and Southern Europe emphasized the roles of regime hardliners and softliners and the pacts they make during transitions, newer studies of other regions of the world focus on the quality of founding elections, which often reflect the establishment of semiauthoritarianism—not liberal democracy.

As many new democracies have struggled to fully liberalize, attention has focused on democratic consolidation and quality of democracy. Case studies of Mexico, Russia, and Nigeria reveal how democratic transitions and consolidation can vary considerably.

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should understand:

• Different causes and consequences of coups d’etat.
   
• The unique attributes of social revolution.
   
• The various pathways of transitions to democracy.
   
• Potential causes of democratic transition and consolidation.