The State Of Democracy In Advanced Industrialised Societies

A Sociological Approach

Abstract

Throughout the last two centuries and especially since the Second World War, no theme has more preoccupied the fields of political science and political sociology than nature, conditions and possibilities of democracy. Since the onset of the third wave of global democratic expansion (Huntington, 1991), considerably more countries have democratic forms of governance than ever before – 89 in 2003 by the count of Freedom House. On the other hand, the performance of many long standing democracies, such as the United States, is proving less than satisfactory to their publics, resulting in a demand of reform and declining vote turnout. Does democracy work? Commonly it is assumed that democracy in advanced societies is working well. This article will dispute this argument and discuss the state of democracy in advanced industrialised societies. Democracy will not be assumed as a static concept, but as continuously shaped in the interaction between the state, market and civil society. This is especially the case in advanced industrialised countries, on which this article will focus. The aim of this article is to discuss the state of democracy in advanced industrialised countries. The positive effect of economic growth on the level of democracy was already noted in 1959 by Lipset. Much research within the modernization school has been focusing on the determinants of democracy from the viewpoint of less democratic countries to achieve higher levels of democracy.