Introduction

Abstract

Democratisation has been intermittently under way for two centuries, and has a long history. There is nothing unique, or even uniquely inspired, about Britain, though it has been one of the more fortunate and closely-managed experiences. Internationally speaking, democratisation has occurred in several phases. Britain is one of several polities that can be retrospectively located in the first and most extended phase, beginning in the nineteenth century and ‘completing’ in the twentieth. It shared essentially evolutionary experiences, presided over by preexisting elites, with countries in north-west Europe, North America, Australia and, less securely, parts of Southern Europe. Thus far, these have been followed by four equally distinctive and more rapid phases. The first was a largely uncontrolled phase in the inter-war years, particularly amongst autocracies defeated in the First World War and successor-states emerging from the Versailles Settlement. The second occurred immediately after 1945, and comprised right-wing dictatorships defeated in the Second World War, particularly Italy, Germany, Austria and Japan, whose transition was closely supervised by the Western liberal-democratic victors. In the 1970s, there was a third phase in Spain and Portugal, again succeeding right-wing dictatorships. Fourth, and most recently, democratisation has emerged in largely uncontrolled form amongst states surviving or emerging from Communist collapse in Russia and East-Central Europe after 1989. Outside Europe, there have also been recent bouts of democratisation in Africa and Latin America, either from one-party states or from military dictatorships.