ABSTRACT
The study of “democracy” has for long been characterised by “case studies”: the analysis of a single country. In fact, there were hardly conceptualisations through which one could compare political systems let alone examine patterns of “democratization” over time. Robert Dahl’s work – in collaboration with an international network of fellow researchers – changed this. The concept of “Polyarchy,” or government by many, allows for a two-dimensional enquiry of how democratic regimes emerge and develop into full-fledged regimes. This seminal approach is the central topic of this chapter. First, the approach is elaborated and is eligible for empirical analysis. Section 2 examines the comparative sequences of Polyarchic development. This longitudinal process demonstrates that there are “waves” of increasing democraticness across our universe. Yet, as Section 3 shows, those waves are almost always followed up by a reversal: de-democratisation. Section 4 illustrates this tendency by focussing on the second wave between 1920 and 1939 (the “Interbellum”) using the empirical work of Tutu Vanhanen. In Section 5, we scrutinise the post-war developments and conclude this chapter by judging the idea and analysis of polyarchy as a conceptual tool and its contribution to the study of democraticness.
