The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape.
Transitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or 'requisites' of democratic...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2011-01-01
|
| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3227648?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1818312129301708800 |
|---|---|
| author | Patrik Lindenfors Fredrik Jansson Mikael Sandberg |
| author_facet | Patrik Lindenfors Fredrik Jansson Mikael Sandberg |
| author_sort | Patrik Lindenfors |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Transitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or 'requisites' of democratic reform. However, transition times and the number of reform steps have not been studied comprehensively. Here we show that historically, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental transition steps, with a median time from autocracy to democracy of 2.4 years, and overnight in the reverse direction. Our results show that autocracy and democracy have acted as peaks in an evolutionary landscape of possible modes of institutional arrangements. Only scarcely have there been slow incremental transitions. We discuss our results in relation to the application of phylogenetic comparative methods in cultural evolution and point out that the evolving unit in this system is the institutional arrangement, not the individual country which is instead better regarded as the 'host' for the political system. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:12:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ce142a89848349b1bb15122f88d7fb1f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T08:12:56Z |
| publishDate | 2011-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-ce142a89848349b1bb15122f88d7fb1f2022-12-21T23:54:11ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032011-01-01611e2827010.1371/journal.pone.0028270The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape.Patrik LindenforsFredrik JanssonMikael SandbergTransitions to democracy are most often considered the outcome of historical modernization processes. Socio-economic changes, such as increases in per capita GNP, education levels, urbanization and communication, have traditionally been found to be correlates or 'requisites' of democratic reform. However, transition times and the number of reform steps have not been studied comprehensively. Here we show that historically, transitions to democracy have mainly occurred through rapid leaps rather than slow and incremental transition steps, with a median time from autocracy to democracy of 2.4 years, and overnight in the reverse direction. Our results show that autocracy and democracy have acted as peaks in an evolutionary landscape of possible modes of institutional arrangements. Only scarcely have there been slow incremental transitions. We discuss our results in relation to the application of phylogenetic comparative methods in cultural evolution and point out that the evolving unit in this system is the institutional arrangement, not the individual country which is instead better regarded as the 'host' for the political system.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3227648?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Patrik Lindenfors Fredrik Jansson Mikael Sandberg The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. PLoS ONE |
| title | The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. |
| title_full | The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. |
| title_fullStr | The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. |
| title_full_unstemmed | The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. |
| title_short | The cultural evolution of democracy: saltational changes in a political regime landscape. |
| title_sort | cultural evolution of democracy saltational changes in a political regime landscape |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3227648?pdf=render |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT patriklindenfors theculturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape AT fredrikjansson theculturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape AT mikaelsandberg theculturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape AT patriklindenfors culturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape AT fredrikjansson culturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape AT mikaelsandberg culturalevolutionofdemocracysaltationalchangesinapoliticalregimelandscape |