ABSTRACT
The concept of political transition, democratization, and the movement from armed physical confrontation to political discourse has long been the subject of academic discussion. Democratization scholar Dankwart Rustow has identified three “phases” following a specific background condition for a positive transitional process. The first, preparatory, phase appears to fit with Rustow’s theory. Rustow’s second phase requires greater deliberation and qualification. Rustow’s final phase is “habituation”, where elites see the benefit of cooperation and accommodation and trust in the procedures and institutions they have created to manage their differences. Rustow’s phase one of the transition clearly survived the Cambodian conflict intact, but phase two did not emerge in sufficient strength to sustain peaceful relations between the two main protagonists. This prevented the chronological evolution of phase three. Regrettably in these conditions, Rustow’s model is not sufficiently useful as a tool to analyze the transition from violence to politics through democratic procedure in Cambodia.
