Writing assignment Comparative Analysis of the Democratic Transitions in Turkey, Tunisia and South Korea PDF

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National Research University «Higher school of economics» Faculty of Social Science Political Science Department

Writing assignment of the course «Comparative politics» «Comparative Analysis of the Democratic Transitions in Turkey, Tunisia and South Korea»

Moscow 2016

Contents I.

Introduction.....................................................................................................2

II.

The case of South Korea.................................................................................2

III.

The case of Turkey..........................................................................................5

IV.

The case of Tunisia.........................................................................................6

V.

Comparative analysis of political institutions that determine the types of political regimes at present.............................................................................8

VI.

Conclusion....................................................................................................10

VII.

References.....................................................................................................11

VIII.

Appendix 1....................................................................................................13

IX.

Appendix 2....................................................................................................14

X.

Appendix 3....................................................................................................15

1

Introduction In his article «The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century», Samuel P. Huntington called the period between 1974 and 1990 the third wave of democratization. He claimed that «a twentieth-century political system as democratic to the extent that its most powerful collective decision makers are selected through fair, honest, and periodic elections in which candidates freely compete for vote and in which virtually all the adult population is eligible to vote. So defined, democracy involves the two dimensions – contestation and participation – that Robert Dahl saw as critical to his realistic democracy or polyarchy. It also implies the existence of those civil and political freedoms to speak, publish, assemble, and organize that are necessary to political debate and the conduct of electoral campaigns»1. Using this factors, Huntington determined political processes in the late 20 th century in some counties as a democratic transition. In this way, we decided to choose for analyzing the cases of «third democratic wave`s» countries South Korea, Turkey, and more recent example of Tunisia which has the similar political aspects of process of democratization. The choice of these cases is due to a research problem that is contained in inconsistency between the presence of similar factors of transformation regimes and the actual differences between the established regimes in these countries. This problem`s relevance stems for the fact that the contemporary period of political upheavals of the Arab Spring is determined as a fourth wave of democratization by some scientists. Thus, comparative analysis of the democratic transitions in «third democratic wave`s» countries like Turkey and South Korea and the transition process that has accomplished as part of the proposed fourth wave of democratization in Tunisia can facilitate can promote the use of aspects of previous cases to find similarities and differences between the practices of democratic transition in the «third democratic wave`s» countries and the Arab States for the actual research. The case of South Korea The independent South Korea has no large history: it is the period of over sixty years from the liberation from Japanese colonial rule since 1945. During this time the political process in this country subjected to significant changes. The desire to build a new independent development state seized the minds of all citizens and Korean elites. First, the main agenda of Korean elites after the liberation was the modernization of industrial base. There was a gradual formation of a civil society during the authoritarian regimes of Rhee Syng Man and Yun Posun in conditions of an intensive support from the US and strong confrontation with the DPRK, accompanied by anti-communist program.

1 Huntington S. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. – Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993. – p. 7.

2

The period of reign of Park Chung-hee characterized by two overriding factors: forced by the state economic development and political repression. Jung Hae Gu in his article «Development of Democratization Movement in South Korea» claims that «one of the reasons for the fall of the Democratic government was their incompetence in ruling the country»2. The military coup in 1961, was the cause of the failure of economic reforms by means of authoritarian methods of settlement. Polity IV Index regards this coup as a autogolpe which means that it was implemented by democratically elected government (see Appendix 1). Rigid restrictions on political freedoms, the formation of militaristic dictatorship to replace incompetent parliament that existed during the reign of Park Chung-hee contrasted with enormous success in the economic sphere3. Dictator applied pervasive methods of administrative-command economic system with full state intervention in the economic sphere which was staged on the «rails of the export». However, the forced economic growth was accompanied by a limitation of the rights and freedoms of citizens. In fact, these restrictions were legitimized by accepted in 1972 Yushin Constitution. Its positions mean the absolute rule of Park because of the dissolution of the National Assembly and formation a fully controlled by the president political elements: C. I. Eugene Kim in work «Korea at the Crossroads: The Birth of the Fourth Republic» notices that «president emergency power is broader, and the exercise of it is less hampered by the civil rights provisions in this constitution. He can, furthermore, "submit important policies of State to national referendum in case he deems it necessary," thus bypassing the regular legislative process. He can propose constitutional amendments for approval by the voters. Each legislative session is now constitutionally limited to go days, and the President can even dissolve the Assembly before the end of its six-year term. The President's extensive appointment powers include: the appointment of the Prime Minister and the members of the State Council» 4. Elections which were held in the days of military dictatorship were uncontested Thus, authoritarian regime bearing nature of the military dictatorship was institutionally enshrined in the Constitution. According to Polity VI index, South Korea moved closer to democracy but constitutional reform threw an unstable military regime to a low «autocratic mark» (see Appendix 1). Eventually, mismatch between favorable economic conditions and limitations of freedoms and rights, the power concentration in the hands of the dictator persisted in South 2 Hae Gu J Development of Democratization Movement in South Korea. – Stanford: Stanford University, 1993 – p.5. 3 PARK CHUNG-HEE AND THE ECONOMY OF SOUTH KOREA // academia.edu [Electronic resource]. URL: http://www.academia.edu/5057806/PARK_CHUNG-HEE_AND_THE_ECONOMY_OF_SOUTH_KOREA (date of access: 16.12.2016).

4 KimE. Korea at the Crossroads: The Birth of the Fourth Republic / C. I. Eugene Kim // Pacific Affairs. – 1973. – Vol. 48. – No. 2. – p. 222.

3

Korea throughout the 70's and 80's. Autocratic regimes survived and after the murder of Park, however, the prevailing middle-class struggle for democratic rights and the apparent incompatibility of authoritarian methods of settlement of economic development have led to a crisis of personalistic dictatorship. This leads to a mass uprising that culminated in Gwangju Upresing, which is regarded as a manifestation of the will of the people in the struggle for democracy. In this way, the process of the fall of the authoritarian regime and the need for democracy ware due to the following factors: gradually formed democratically minded part of society that has received the opportunity to express widespread discontent and managed to unite; the «political» inadequacy the repressive methods of the government's authoritarian military elites of the «old» regime; failure of settlement methods of economic growth; the external influence of the USA on political process. December of 1987 was a turning point for the country as it marked the conduct of the elections meet the standards of democracy and constitutional reform. Roh Tae-woo who came to power through democratic elections promised the introduction of democratic practices in the political sphere: amendment on the direct, fair and competitive presidential elections, amnesty for political prisoners, the removal of strict censorship, privacy reform5. So, the new Constitution of the VI Republic meets the requirements of democratic practices: president deprived of the right to dissolve the parliament, State Council was formed in conjunction with parliamentarians, thus create a balance between the executive and legislative authorities, liberalization of the economy was implemented, citizens were given civil and inalienable sovereign rights. Policy IV index shows that democratic transition was successfully implemented from 1988 to 1990 and democracy remained stable and even shows growth (see Appendix 1). These factors suggest that the steady state is democratic and continues to develop. Talking about the external factors of South Korea democratization, lots of scientists pay the great attention to the influence of the USA: support of authoritarian regimes was due to the struggle against the communist influence but support of democratic movements in the 80s was needed for the extension of loyal to the democratic USA Korean government6. Moreover, it had a value international prestige. For example, South Korea got an opportunity to host the Olympic Games 1988. Thus, we should consider the impact of external factors of democratization.

5 Hae Gu J Development of Democratization Movement in South Korea. – Stanford: Stanford University, 1993 – p.15. 6 Stueck W Democratization in Korea The United States role, 1980 and 1987/ William Stueck // International Journal of Korean Studies. – 1998. – Vol. 2. – No. 1. – pp. 1 – 26. 4

The case of Turkey During the second half of the twentieth century Turkey is regularly undergoes regime`s changes. This can be explained by the presence of Turkey's political system based on peculiar checks and balances system. But in fact, Military regimes had no goals of seizing power in the long term but organized coups in case of failure of the policy governing political elements. According to Policy IV Index, in the second half of the twentieth century Turkey attempted to conduct democratic transition for three times (see Appendix 2). The first was implemented because of Democratic Party wins the election. However, excessively intensive military and political consolidation with the USA (NATO military bases were established in Turkey), as well as the increasingly sprawling repressive apparatus put the government in a precarious position. Scientists note that the main reason for the failure of the democratization of the 50s - 60s was the disunity and intractability of the elites 7, which led to the restriction of political freedoms and growing discontent among the masses. Thus, in 1960 army took advantage of his peculiar privilege, and overthrew the regime of the Democratic Party, which was eventually disbanded. Subsequent attempts to introduce democratic practices also bound to fail: in 1971 another military coup was caused by the formation of anarchy in the country because of too intense confrontation between political groups. Despite the fact, that 1961 Constitution «provided for the separation of the powers and checks and balances among the three branches of government, delegated power to autonomous administrative agencies, and established relative autonomy for higher education institutions, […] strengthened the independence of the judiciary and established (for the first time) a constitutional court empowered with judicial review, […] intended to fragment state power in order to sap the power of the majoritarian legislature»8, it is institutionally consolidated the military intervention in the political process because it «established an upper chamber where members of the military junta assumed the status of permanent (lifetime) senators»9. Given the fact that the constitution was quite liberal, the various political forces entered the open and sometimes extremist confrontation that has created the need for military intervention. Various aspects of the political system have been greatly tightened: the persecution of political opponents of the regime, paralysis of parliamentary activity, confrontation between the political and economic elites. Despite the gradual stabilization of the political system in the mid-70s, the end of the decade was marked by violent and uncontrolled 7 Türkmen F Human Rights Quarterly/ Füsun Türkmen // The Johns Hopkins University Press. – 2008. –Vol. 30. – No. 1. – pp. 146 – 163 8 Isiksel T Between text and context: Turkey’s tradition of authoritarian constitutionalism/ International Journal of Constitutional Law [Electronic Recourse]. URL: http://icon.oxfordjournals.org/content/11/3/702.full (date of access: 17.12.2016).

9 ibid. 5

political terrorism right-wing and left-wing radical political organizations that led to a military coup again. Thus, the non-democratic regime in Turkey before the democratic transition 80's was a kind of an eclectic mix of shadow and a strong military dictatorship and the nominal multiparty presidential-parliamentary republic. This thesis can be confirmed by the following factors: a nominal existence ideologically different parties and the possibility of competition (sometimes this is what led to the destabilization of the political system); In fact, government is accountable to the president and he has the authority calling early parliamentary elections; military elite can intervene directly in the political process. However, strict censorship, the initiation of political repression, neglect of the constitutional norms in certain intervals indicate that Turkey was an authoritarian state. The Police IV Index illustrates these «Turkish political regimes swings», replacing stable democratic development of upheavals and setbacks to authoritarianism (see Appendix 2). The success and stable democratic transition was made in Turkey in the early '80s on the scenario which was a similar with a with past attempts. But it had the characteristic feature of which was that now that political pluralism has a clear framework to prevent extremism 10. The Turkish army constitutionally justified its withdrawal from the political sphere by the dissolution of the National Security Council and strengthened the role of the non-partisan political element – President. However, committed to democratic elections parties was formed in part by the junta which suggests that the impact of military force remains partly. External factors also played a role in the establishment of democratic practices in Turkey. During half a century, Turkey is attempting to European integration and accession to the EU where the state with a non-democratic regime and the rule of the military junta cannot be regarded as a potential member of the European Union11. The case of Tunisia According to Policy IV Index, the introduction of multi-party institutions, the provision of political freedom given by Ben Ali in 1987 did not lead to the democratization of Tunisia (see appendix 3). Ben Ali came to power without bloodshed as a result of a short power crisis caused by the inability of holding the post of President Habib Ben Ali Bourguiba. In fact, Ben Ali's rule has become authoritarian. Opposition forces not only infringed upon and persecuted but autocrat 10Timeline: A history of Turkish coups // Aljazeera [Electronic resource]. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2012/04/20124472814687973.html (date of access: 17.12.2016).

URL:

11 Aydin-Düzgit S, Gürsoy Y International Influences on the Turkish Transition to Democracy in 1983 // CDDRL Working papers [Electronic resource]. URL: https://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/No_87_YakrakSenemTurkey.pdf (date of access: 18.12.2016). 6

attempted co-optation of the opposition elites to reduce the risks. In his article «Ben Ali's Constitutional Coup in Tunisia» L. B. Ware wrote that «yet Ben Ali gives the impression that all aspects of the pluralistic process will be enlarged. It is probable that the armed forces will demand the same privileges of political association accorded to the ordinary citizen and thus, in taking a more active role in the legitimate political process, may become more openly exposed to the appeal of non-Bourguibist ideology. To counter such a trend, Ben Ali will be obliged to infuse the military with a sense of direction and purpose that non-Bourguibist ideologies are now attempting to coopt»12. Ben Ali made a weak and loyal opposition, which gave him the opportunity to create an image of a pluralistic political system. Attempt to change the constitutional system of selecting the president spoke about the formation of a personalistic dictatorship. Enlisting the support of co-opted opposition, Ben Ali and the ruling Democratic Constitutional Rally constantly by a considerable margin triumphed in elections at various levels13. At the same time, the elections did not meet democratic standards: there have been falsifications, foreign observers were intimidated. The culmination of the personalistic regime of Ben Ali became a constitutional amendment in 2002 that increased the age limit and allow reelection of President Ben Ali. Tunisian economic sphere was of a contradictory character. On the one hand, economic growth has contributed to the formation of the middle class and secured the overall decent standard of living. On the other hand, authoritarian methods of full state control of the economic system generate a large inflation, corruption, and unemployment among young people. On the eve of the mass protests of 2011, Tunisia was an authoritarian state with a personalistic dictatorship that limited political and civil liberties and failed economic reforms. The long tenure of power has made it possible to complete the identification of failures in the political, economic, and social spheres and the figure of Ben Ali. With regard to external factors, Ben Ali implements the facade of democracy and liberalization of the Tunisian society because of the desire for economic and political cooperation with the United States. The democratic process has been launched «below« by means of mass protests and riots. The Policy IV Index shows the period between 1995 and 2012 as unstable because of growing dissatisfaction with the government and the crisis of political and economic systems (see Appendix 3). As a result of the revolution, power passed temporarily to the military clique, headed by Prime Minister Ghannouchi, but pro-democracy demonstrators contributed to his 12 Ware L Ben Ali's Constitutional Coup in Tunisia / L. B. Ware // Middle East Journal. – 1988. – Vol. 42. – No. 4. – p. 596.

13 Ibid. 7

resignation and the holding of elections, to appropriate democratic norms. Thus, leaders and parliament of «new» regime were chosen by democratic elections in the coming years. Ben Ali's promises of economic reforms aimed at eliminating unemployment, corruption and the promise of holding fair democratic elections have not found support of the rebels and the deposed president escaped from Tunisia to Saudi Arabia to avoid punishment. Comp...