Discourses of diffusion and democratization

Democratization has been described not only as a historical shift, but a geographical process of diffusion. In this paper, we explore the ways in which the diffusion of democracy has been conceptualized by scholars and policy actors. While the exchange between the academy and policy circles has been continuous, there have been significant shifts over the past 50 years in how the “problem” of democratization has been understood. These shifts reflect different understandings of the internal and external conditions that enable and limit the spread of democracy. We identify three distinct approaches to the study of democracyʹs diffusion and argue that each approach has predominated in scholarly and policy discourses at different times since World War II. We focus special attention on the contemporary era and attempts by both academics and policy actors to frame the diffusion of democracy in terms of “democratic audits”. Democratic audits are standardized measures of a countryʹs political institutions and civic culture. Such audits place a premium on the tangible, and ostensibly transparent, features of democratic systems, such as elections. We argue that over-reliance on these audits constrains the discourse of democracy, limiting the ability of scholars and policy-makers, alike, to adequately grasp the complex interaction between democratization and specific geographical–historical contexts.