Political development theory and the dissemination of democracy

Abstract

The relationship between political development theory and the dissemination of democracy is a curious one. In the period when political development theory was most influential, efforts to disseminate democracy throughout the Third World in line with its core values were notably unsuccessful. It later went into eclipse as a consequence of the failure of successive efforts at theory‐building, from functional, cultural and comparative historical perspectives respectively. Despite this double failure, its core ideas have re‐emerged as a dominant force in recent democratization literature. This article outlines the core ideas of the literature, in which conservative elitism rather than modernization theory provides the unifying thread. It then traces the failure of political development theory as theory in the 1960s and 1970s, and the emergence thereafter of a politics of pragmatism in which the core values of conservative elitism survive intact. Finally, it suggests some of the reasons for its renewed ascendancy.