Democratization among Challenges - Essay Example

The dissatisfaction may rise to violence but if the state’s coercive apparatus, which is the Military and Police, is willing to suppress the revolutionaries, the system still can have the chances of survival even among hazards through illegitimately (Skocpol, 1979). The same rule applies to the democratic transition which is, in a sense, a revolution which the state’s powerful apparatus tries to stop from taking effect (Skocpol, 1979). For example in the Middle East, what hinders democracy is the strong authoritarianism systematically helped by the military (Bellin, 2004).

The powerful military has the illegitimate will to resist democratic transition in the Middle East. Coercive apparatus sometimes couples with the civilian leadership for example in Egypt and Syria. Here the leadership is civilian however no true democratic transition can occur. The reason is simple; civilian leadership and military go hand in hand for the joint interests and against the joint threat. They control the state mutually and the share in authority is so systematically equaled that none can go against the other.

Both of them are patrimonially linked to each other (Bellin, 2004). For the state’s coercive apparatus to permit the society to experience democratic transition, there are many factors that play a pivotal role. The economy is one such factor. The stronger is the economy of a state, the less are the chances of democratization to emerge and succeed. Analytics of history reveals that whenever the economy went down and the coercive apparatus got less money from the regime, misunderstandings developed between the state and military.

With consistency in the downfall of the economy, the misunderstandings took an aggravated shape. The crises benefitted the democratic powers to struggle for the transition. Politicians struggled with no fear as the military had its own problems. They stood successful in their mission (Bellin, 2004). The international support for a regime decides the fate of democratic transition. The situation in such cases demands honesty to be shown by the international community. When the coercive regimes lose their international support, they are encountered with many issues.

The aggravating situations require immediate replacement and democracy comes up with the most feasible solution. The coercive apparatus has to welcome the democratic transition. They are forced to do so because the absence of international support results in the downfall of the economy (Bellin, 2004). The strength of the coercive apparatus lies in its institutionalization. The more is the apparatus institutionalized, the less will it have the will to conquer the political borders. The less is the coercive apparatus institutionalized, the more will it have the will to resist the democratic transition.

Institutionalization in coercive apparatus refers to the norms inside it. If the apparatus is systematically administered by the use of rules, principles, and merit, it is called to be institutionalized. Here recruitment is based on merit and promotion on performance not political affiliation. Discipline is a sort of ethics in the domain (Huntington, 1991). Contrary to this, coercive apparatus is said to be less institutionalized if there is no obeying of rules and principles in the proper understanding of the terms.