democracy's century

7/29/2019 Democracy's Century

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CENTURYDemocracys

A Survey of Global Political Change in the 20th

Century

This end-of-the-century project rep-

resents an institutional effort by

Freedom House, the non-partisan

organization that monitors political rights

and civil liberties around the world, to as-

sess trends in the political systems of the

world over the course of the 20th century.

Freedom House is well suited to this

task. For over forty years, Freedom House

has been issuing annual reports on the stateof freedom in the world. Central to that

work is the yearly study Freedom in the

World. We have applied the same rigorous

analytic standards employed in our surveys

to the compilation of this study of the state

of the worlds political systems at the start

of this century, in mid-century and at the

20th centurys end.

What this study is: This study exam-

ines at three equidistant points in the 20th

century the kinds of political systems that

have governed the world. It divides coun-

tries on the basis of their political practices

into the following:

Democracies: These are political sys-

tems whose leaders are elected in com-

petitive multi-party and multi-candi-

date processes in which opposition

parties have a legitimate chance of at-

taining power or participating in

power.

Restricted democratic practices:

These are primarily regimes in which

a dominant ruling party controls thelevers of power, including access to the

media, and the electoral process in

ways that preclude a meaningful chal-

lenge to its political hegemony. In the

first half of the century, states with re-

stricted democratic practices included

countries which denied universal fran-

chise to women, racial minorities, and

the poor and landless.

Monarchies: These are divided into

three groups: constitutional monar-

chies, in which a constitution delin-

eates the powers of the monarch and

in which some power may have de-

volved to elected legislatures and other

bodies; traditional monarchies; and

absolute monarchies, in which

monarchic power was exercised in des-

potic fashion.

Authoritarian regimes: These are

typically one-party states and military

dictatorships in which there are sig-

nificant human rights violations. Totalitarian regimes: These are the

one-party systems that establish effec-

tive control over most aspects of in-

formation, engage in propaganda, con-

trol civic life, and intrude into private

life. Typically, these have been the

Marxist-Leninist and national social-

ist regimes.

Colonial and imperialdependencies:

These are the territories that were un-

Democracys Ce

der the domination of the large impe

systems that predominated in the f

half of the century.

Protectorates: These are countr

that have by their own initiative sou

the protection of a more power

neighboring state or are under the te

porary protection and jurisdiction

the international community.

In short, this study represents an

tempt to assess the organizing princip

by which countries are governed and htheir leaders are selected.

What this study is not: This is not a stu

that seeks to replicate the work of Freed

Houses annual Survey of Freedom. T

Survey assesses not only the political s

tem in a country, but also the countr

human rights performance, civil soci

economic freedoms, and rule of law.

Democracys Share:Democratic governments elected by universal suffrage

1900 1950 2000

70

40

50

60

30

20

10

0

% Countrie

% Populati


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The Findings

Political scientists who

point to the proliferation

of democratically elected

governments around the world

since the mid-1970s refer to

ours as the democratic age.

But the data presented in this

end-of-the-century report make

clear that ours has not only

been a century of bloody

struggle between peoples and

ideologies, but that it also has

been a century of struggle for

national sovereignty and for the

individuals democratic sover-

eignty within the state. In a very

real sense, the 20th century has

become the Democratic Cen-

tury.

The findings herein are

significant. They show a dra-matic expansion of democratic

governance over the course of

the century. This political trend has been

matched by significant economic progress

associated with the expansion of market

economies. Like economic progress, politi-

cal progress has been uneven. But the gen-

eral trends are hard to ignore. They rein-

force the conclusion that humankind, in fits

and starts, is rejecting oppression and opt-

ing for greater openness and freedom.

As depicted in the accompanying

graphs and charts, the 20th century has seena significant expansion of democratically

elected governments and a dramatic expan-

sion in the number of sovereign states. In

1900, there were no states which could be

judged as electoral democracies by the stan-

dard of universal suffrage for competitive

multiparty elections. The U.S., Britain, and

a handful of other countries possessed the

most democratic systems, but their denial

of voting rights to women, and in the case

of the U.S. to black Americans meant that

they were countries with restricted demo-

cratic practices. The states with restricted

democratic practices were 25 in number and

accounted for just 12.4 percent of the world

population. In 1900 monarchies and empires

predominated.

By 1950, the defeat of Nazi totalitarian-

ism, the post-war momentum toward de-colo-

nization, and the post-war reconstruction

of Europe and Japan resulted in an increase

in the number of democratic states. At mid-

century, there were 22 democracies account-

ing for 31 percent of the world population

and a further 21 states with restricted demo-

cratic practices, accounting for 11.9 percent

of the globes population.

By the close of our century liberal and

electoral democracies clearly predominate,

and have expanded significantly in the Third

Wave, which has brought democracy to

much of the post-Communist world and to

Latin America and parts of Asia and Africa.

Electoral democracies now represent 119 ofthe 192 existing countries and constitute

58.2 percent of the worlds population. At

the same time liberal democracies i.e.

countries Freedom House regards as free

and respectful of basic human rights and

the rule of law are 85 in number and repre-

sent 38 percent of the global population.

The growth of individual political au-

tonomy (usually accompanied by a broader

expansion of freedom) is reflected in the

adoption of key post-World War II interna-

tional documents, particularly the 1948 Uni-

versal Declaration on Human Rights. A

growing global human rights and democratic

consciousness is reflected in the expansion

of democratic practices and in the extension

of the democratic franchise to all parts of

the world and to all major civilizations and

religions. At the same time as the individual

has gained greater sovereignty, so too have

many formerly disenfranchised peoples and

nations attained statehood. For the second

major trend of the century is the prolifera-

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MED )%0.26(911 )%3.41(22 )%0.0(0 )%2.85(3.834,3 )%0.13(2.347 )%0.0(0

PDR )%3.8(61 )%6.31(12 )%2.91(52 )%0.5(6.792 )%9.11(9.582 )%4.21(6.602

MC )%0.0(0 )%8.5(9 )%6.41(91 )%0.0(0 )%2.3(9.77 )%9.71(3.992

MT )%2.5(01 )%6.2(4 )%6.4(6 )%0.1(2.85 )%7.0(4.61 )%3.1(5.22

MA )%0.0(0 )%3.1(2 )%8.3(5 )%0.0(0 )%5.0(5.21 )%6.63(0.016

RA )%8.02(04 )%5.6(01 )%0.0(0 )%3.33(9.869,1 )%1.5(0.221 )%0.0(0

TOT )%6.2(5 )%8.7(21 )%0.0(0 )%4.2(9.141 )%1.43(7.618 )%0.0(0

C )%0.0(0 )%9.72(34 )%3.24(55 )%0.0(0 )%9.4(4.811 )%2.03(1.305

P )%0.1(2 )%1.02(13 )%4.51(02 )%1.0(8.4 )%5.8(3.302 )%6.1(5.62

LATOT )%0.001(291 )%0.001(451 )%0.001(031 )%0.001(6.909,5 )%0.001(3.693,2 %0.001(0.866,1

ycarcomeD=MED

ecitcarPcitarcomeDdetcirtseR=PDR

yhcranoMlanoitutitsnoC=MC

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tion of sovereign states. In 1900, there w

55 sovereign states, 80 in 1950 and tod

there are 192.

In 1900, of the 55 sovereign states,

were extensive empires, the largest of wh

were the British, the Russian, the Fren

the Austro-Hungarian, and the Ottom

Thirty-three of todays countries were p

of other states and 112 were under impe

and colonial rule.

Sovereignty, of course, is no guartee of democracy. Nor is democracy an

solute guarantee of respect for human rig

But the three trends have generally p

gressed together in this century. Beca

democracy has expanded rapidly over

last 20 years, many new democracies

fragile and the gains could well be revers

And while our centurys clamor for

mocracy and freedom has not always be

peaceful (regrettably, it has frequently m

with brutal repression), it has contribu

to the prospect of a more peaceful wor

For history indicates that stable and est

lished democracies rarely war with one

other.

Democracys Century


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Sovereign States

Methodology

The data for the political typology of

the world in 1900 and 1950 have

been assembled by Freedom House

researcher Jason Muse and reviewed by

Freedom Houses senior staff. The data for

the year 2000 are the product of Freedom

Houses annual Survey of Freedom, a ma-

jor institutional research effort.

The findings were reviewed by a teamof scholars that consisted of Professor Or-

lando Patterson of Harvard University; Pro-

fessor Seymour Martin Lipset and Profes-

sor Francis Fukuyama, both of George Ma-

son University; Dr. Fareed Zakaria, the

Managing Editor ofForeign Affairs maga-

zine; and Dr. Marc Plattner, co-director of

the International Forum for Democratic Stud-

ies and the editor of theJournal of Democ-

racy. Adrian Karatnycky, President of Free-

dom House and Arch Puddington, the Vice

President for Research also took part in the

review of the data.The underlying data on individual

countries at each fifty-year interval can be

received by contacting us at

[email protected] or by phone: 212-

514-8040. This report will be published with

an accompanying essay by Prof. Orlando

Patterson, John Cowles Professor at

Harvard University in our forthcoming vol-

ume, Freedom in the World: 1999-2000. The

report is also available on our website

(www.freedomhouse.org).

SERIPMEFOETAFEHTnielurlairepmirednuseirtnuocs'yadotforebmuN(

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eripmE2 3 0

eripmEnaigleB 0 0 1

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Democracys Ce

2000

1950

1900

0 10 20 40 60 8030 50 70 90 100

Tracking Sovereignty

Tracking Polity by Percent of World Population

Tracking Polity by Sovereign States

1900

2000

1950

0 50 100 150 200

DE

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1900

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Sovereign States Colonial Dependencies Protectorates


4/4Democracys Century

Century Project Team:

Professor Francis Fukuyama, George Mas

University

Professor Seymour Martin Lipset, Georg

Mason University

Professor Orlando Patterson, Harvard

University

Dr. Marc Plattner, co-director of the Intern

tional Forum for Democratic Studies

Dr. Fareed Zakaria,Managing Editor of For

Affairs magazine

Jason Muse, Principal Researcher, Freedo

House

Freedom House Board of Trustees

Bette Bao Lord, Chairman

Max M. Kampelman, Chair Emeritus

Ned W. Bandler, Vice Chairman

Mark Palmer, Vice Chairman

Walter J. Schloss, Treasurer

Kenneth L. Adelman, Secretary

Morton Abramowitz

J. Brian Atwood

Zbigniew Brzezinski

Peter Collier

Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr.

Paula Dobriansky

William C. Doherty, Jr.

Alan Dye

Sandra Feldman

Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr.

Theodore J. Forstmann

Norman Hill

Samuel P. Huntington

John T. Joyce

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick

Anthony Lake

Mara Liasson

Jay Mazur

John Norton Moore

Peggy Noonan

P.J. ORourke

Orlando Patterson

Susan Kaufman Purcell

Otto J. Reich

Peter Rodman

Donald Rumsfeld

Wendell L. Willkie II

Jacques D. Wimpfheimer

Paul Wolfowitz

Andrew Young

Richard Sauber, of Counsel

Adrian Karatnycky, President

James S. Denton,Executive Director

Arch Puddington, Vice President for Resear

Freedom House120 Wall Street

New York, NY 10025Tel (212) 514-8040Fax (212) 514-8055www.freedomhouse.org

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democracy's century

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