Hown Does Democracy Happen?

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Democracy (“rule by the people” when translated) comes from the Greek language. In ancient Greece, where popular government first appeared around 500 B.C., these systems were called democracies. (Dahl, 78) Those called “democracies” in classical antiquity advocates in both theory and practice of becoming modern democracies. Since the end of Cold War era, the modern civilizations strive to create, or preserve democracy as one of the ultimate ideals. (Shah) Accordingly, a number of democracies have flowered in East Asia, Eastern Europe, and South America and enough have floundered to spark a vigorous debate about what it takes to create a lasting liberal order.(Patten, 1) Even the Middle East – the Arab World is slightly on the road to democratizing since the Arab Spring. How does democracy happen? In this essay, I would like to focus on the fundamental principles of democracy according to the Schmitter and Karl’s article “What Democracy Is … and Is Not”, and would like to examine the emergence of democracy according to the article “Economic Development and Democracy” by Seymour Martin Lipset, “Bowling Alone” by Robert Putnam and “Why Democracies Survive” by Larry Diamond.
First of all, let explore the concepts of democracy that Schmitter and Karl explain. They highlighted the definition of the democracy as “Modern political democracy is a system of governance in which rulers are held accountable for their actions in the public realm by citizens, acting indirectly through the competition and cooperation of their elected representatives.” (Schmitter and Karl, 76) The authors believe that there are various kinds of democracies, but there must be some "procedural minimum" conditions for democracy. They agree with the elements that...

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...pset, Seymour Martin. "Economic Development and Democracy." Rogowski, Ronald and O'neil, Patrick H. Essential Readings in Comparative Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2006. 316-329. print.
Patten, Chris. "Democracy Doesn't Flow From The Barrel of a Gun."Www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms. Monterey Institute, Sept.-Oct. 2003. Web. 18 Dec. 2013.
Putnam, Robert D. "Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital." Journal of Democracy 6.1 (1995): 65-78. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.
Shah, Anup. "Democracy." - Global Issues. N.p., 28 Jan. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
Schmitter, Philippe C., and Terry Lynn Karl. "What Democracy Is ... and Is Not." Journal of Democracy 2.3 (1991): 75-88. Project MUSE. Web. 10 Sept. 2013.
Wang, Shaoguang. "State Effectiveness and Democracy." Www.cuhk.edu. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2013. .

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