The main interpretations of the process of democratization in modern political science

Abstract

The article examines the interpretations of the political processes of democratization by authoritative Russian and foreign researchers, primarily by political scientists, as well as modern characteristics and trends of democratization based on both recognized established theories of the XX century and the most modern research and scientific publications. The article has a review-analytical character. The method of secondary analysis of scientific sources is applied. The author highlights structural and procedural/actor approaches to the study of democratic transits. Attention is paid to the global pace of democratization of political systems of states in the XX century and modern trends in democratization based on data from monitoring centers specializing in socio-political research. It is shown that the pace of democratization at the global level is currently declining, which may indicate a naturally expected decline in the "third wave" of democratization in S. Huntington's terminology. Based on the conducted analytical research, the main criteria that ensure the reproduction of the democratic system are identified: the formation and functioning of the party and electoral systems, the consolidation of the electorate based on the adoption of democratic values, the formation and development of civil society, on the basis of which in the future it is possible to conduct a comparative analysis after identifying the relevant indicators. The factors hindering democratization are considered. Attention is paid to the proposals of researchers aimed at improving the quality and sustainability of democracy. A remark is also made that for a number of states the expediency of fully adopting liberal democracy is currently a debatable topic due to the presence of at least two conceptually different paradigms of understanding and interpreting democracy: Western and eastern models of democracy with different roots. The relevance of the studied topic is explained by the fact that the variety and state of the political system of the state somehow affect every citizen; studies of the processes of development of political systems can contribute to the search for optimal ways of reform.

Keywords

• democracy
• democratization
• waves of democratization
• variability of democratization
• democratic values