An Historiographical Approach to Democratization

Abstract

Contemporary theoretical examinations of the processes of democratization have a common feature. They view the transformation of regimes and the implementation of democracy from the perspective of institutionalization. Moreover, they evaluate the success of democratization according to minimalistic definitions of democracy. These theories manifest in a disregard for the historical dimension of a development in the meaning of democracy, and its relation to local and contemporary circumstances. As a consequence, these theories shed little light on the origins and vicissitudes of democratization in the different regions of the world. In this paper, I argue that the contextualizing historiographic method of the Cambridge School, and in particular the work of John Dunn, offer a valuable means to a critical reflection of democratization.