In 1974, Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, which overthrew the
country's almost half-century dictatorship, inaugurated the “third wave”
of global democratization.
The “first wave” began with the American and French revolutions, and
29 countries became democracies in the period up to 1922. That number
shrank to 12 with the rise of Communism, Fascism and Nazism.
The “second wave” arrived at the end of World War II, when
decolonization brought democracy to countries like India and Sri Lanka,
and ebbed with events like the military coups in Bolivia and Brazil in
1964, and Argentina in 1966.
In the thirty years following the Carnation Revolution, democracy
expanded around the world like never before. But around 2006 it came to a
halt. Though the total number of democracies has not sharply declined,
space for civil society is shrinking. Freedom and democracy are in
recession. This timeline charts the spread, regression, and sometimes
even collapse, of democracy in the last 40 years.
Mário Soares, center, reads the oath of office as Portugal's first civilian president in decades, in Lisbon in 1986.
Credit
Associated Press photo
April 25, 1974
The Carnation Revolution and the Birth of the 'Third Wave'
In April 1974, young left-wing officers of the Movimento das Forças
Armadas (M.F.A.) overthrew Portugal’s 48-year-old nationalist
dictatorship in a swift military coup, launching the first democratic
transition in what would become the “third wave” of global
democratization.
A tense, uncertain period of political maneuvering,
worker strikes, attempted coups and countercoups followed in the next
two years, until parliamentary elections took place in April 1976, and Mário Soares,
a dissident who had been jailed 12 times under the dictatorship (and
who was known to Portuguese as ''sempre em pe,'' the name for a toy that
bounces back whenever it is knocked over) and his Socialist Party
formed a coalition government.
Lech Walesa, an electrician “with a vocational school education and a sure touch for mass politics,”
led the founding of the Communist bloc’s first independent trade union,
Solidarity (Solidarność), at the Gdansk shipyards in Poland.
Solidarity, which eventually claimed more than nine million members,
became the spearhead and symbol of a broad campaign of nonviolent
resistance to the Polish Communist regime, which declared martial law in
1981 in an effort to eliminate the union.
But years of political
repression failed to suppress widespread civil resistance, and in the
face of mounting social unrest the government of General Wojciech
Jaruzelski entered into roundtable negotiations with Solidarity on Feb.
6, 1989.
“Poland's Communist leadership at last seems prepared to
acknowledge that there can be no reform without the participation of
working people on terms of their own choosing,” read an editorial in The Times on Jan. 21, 1989.
The
talks yielded an agreement for open parliamentary elections in June
1989 (the freest in the country since 1947). Solidarity led the
formation of a coalition government and, in December 1990, Mr. Walesa
was elected president.
“Consider the sad paradox of modern Argentina,” read an editorial
in The Times in 1980. “Abundant resources, including food and energy,
and high levels of development and education have encouraged the dream
of a prosperous society playing an influential role in regional affairs.
Yet a primitive politics keeps puncturing the dream.”
Argentina’s
military dictatorship collapsed in 1983 after its defeat in a short war
with Britain over the Falklands the previous year. Raúl Alfonsín,
leader of the Radical Civic Union, won the 1983 presidential election
and went on to form the first democratic government in Argentina since
1976, bringing an end to seven years of repression, in which more than
10,000 people (and possibly as many as 30,000) were “disappeared” by the military, and many more went into exile.
The long-time democratic political leader Tancredo Neves won an
indirect election to become the first president of a restored democracy
in Brazil, concluding two decades of military rule and an extended
process of political opening, known as the abertura.
A crowd in Manila cheering after a radio broadcast announced that President Ferdinand E. Marcos had fled the country.
Credit
Sadayuki Mikami/Associated Press
Feb. 22-25, 1986
'People Power' in the Philippines
A tumultuous period of protest and conflict in the Philippines was unleashed by the August 1983 assassination
of the charismatic democrat, Benigno Aquino, on the tarmac of Manila
airport as he was returning from three years of exile in the United
States. In February 1986, after four days of massive, nonviolent civil
resistance to defend the presidential election victory of Mr. Aquino’s
wife, Corazon Aquino, President Ferdinand E. Marcos flew into exile after more than 20 years in power. Ms. Aquino assumed the presidency.
In 1988, after 15 years of repressive military rule, Gen. Augusto
Pinochet gambled his grip on power for the opportunity to govern as a
democratic leader, and held a plebiscite on the question of whether he
should be granted a new eight-year term as president.
A broad-based opposition united to campaign against him and won 55 percent of the vote.
Democratic elections the following year ushered in a coalition
government and Chile went on to become one of the most liberal
democracies in Latin America.
Near Chang'an Boulevard in Beijing, early on June 4, 1989.
Credit
Jeff Widener/Associated Press
June 4, 1989
Pro-Democracy Movement Derailed in Tiananmen Square, Beijing
On this day, tens of thousands of People’s Liberation Army troops and
hundreds of armored military vehicles crushed student pro-democracy
protests. The death toll
from the crackdown remains unknown, but it is believed that hundreds,
probably thousands, were killed that day, and thousands more were
detained, tortured or executed in the subsequent days and weeks. Since
then, the cause of political reform has remained derailed in China and
public discussion of the 1989 Tiananmen protests and crackdown is
forbidden by law.
After Hungary began removing its border defenses with Austria in May
1989, thousands of East Germans escaped through the country to Austria.
By November, the exodus of East Germans had become a floodtide and, on
Nov. 9, Germans began tearing down the Berlin Wall.
The following year East Germany held democratic elections for a transitional government that negotiated German reunification.
Communist
rule collapsed throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and most
countries, led by Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia (which then split into two nations) transitioned to democracy.
Nelson Mandela with his wife, Winnie, after his release from Victor Prison, Cape Town.
Credit
Associated Press Photo
Feb. 11, 1990
South Africa's First Multiracial, Democratic Elections
In 1990, one week after President F. W. de Klerk had lifted the ban
on Nelson Mandela's African National Congress and other opposition
parties, Mr. Mandela was released after more than 27 years of
imprisonment.
In April 1994 the A.N.C. won a massive victory in the
country’s first multiracial, democratic elections, and Nelson Mandela
became president at the helm of a five-year, transitional power-sharing
government.
Boris N. Yeltsin in March, 1991.
Credit
Liu Heung Shing/Associated Press
Dec. 25, 1991
The Dissolution of the Soviet Union
On Dec. 25, 1991, after six-and-a-half years as general secretary of
the Soviet Communist Party, and a historic period of liberalizing
reforms, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned
as president of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and presided
over its peaceful dissolution. Boris N. Yeltsin, who had been elected
president of Soviet Russia in May 1990, became the first freely elected
ruler of the Russian Federation.
The Republic of China, Taiwan, completed a decade-long process of gradual democratic opening with its first-ever direct presidential election. President Lee Teng-hui of the ruling Kuomintang party was elected despite China conducting missile tests off the coast of Taiwan in what was widely seen as an attempt to intimidate Taiwan's electorate and influence the election.
The Pakistani military overthrew
the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (the third time the
military had overthrown the government in the country’s 52-year history)
after Mr. Sharif attempted to replace the chief of staff, Gen. Pervez
Musharraf. The bloodless coup ushered in another long period of military
rule in Pakistan, under General Musharraf.
Civilian constitutional government was restored in the 2008 elections,
but under the continuing heavy constraint of a military establishment
beyond civilian control — and not before former Prime Minister Benazir
Bhutto was assassinated on Dec. 27, 2007, while campaigning for a seat in Parliament.
Hugo Chávez greets supporters in Caracas, Venezuela, in May 1998.
Credit
Jose Caruci/Associated Press
Dec. 15, 1999
Hugo Chávez Strengthens His Grip on Venezuela
Voters gave Hugo Chávez, who had been elected president in 1998
after a failed attempt to seize the office in a coup six years earlier,
a new constitution that greatly strengthened the powers of the
presidency — lengthening its term and allowing re-election, weakening
the national legislature and dismissing the existing Congress and
Supreme Court.
When Chávez was re-elected, in July 2000,
the National Assembly gave him authority to rule by decree for a year,
and he proceeded to consolidate an authoritarian regime.
Vladimir V. Putin in January 2000.
Credit
Ivan Sekretarev/Associated Press
March 26, 2000
Under Putin, Democratic Gains in Russia Are Undone
After winning a presidential election marred by serious and extensive irregularities,
Mr. Yeltsin’s designated successor, Vladimir V. Putin, moved to
centralize power in the Kremlin and rout what remained of Russia’s badly
fragmented liberal opposition.
"Mr. Putin has the chance to be
both democratic and effective. It would be a great loss for Russia and
the world if he followed the K.G.B. rulebook and turned the Kremlin back
into a fortress," read an editorial in The Times on March 26, 2000.
In
the years since, Mr.Putin has destroyed every independent source of
power and accountability in the federal system, the Parliament, the
media, business, and civil society while constructing a kleptocratic and increasingly repressive authoritarian regime.
Saddam
Hussein’s dictatorship was swiftly deposed, but the coalition forces
failed to find evidence of weapons of mass destruction and the U.S.
switched to a strategy of promoting democracy in Iraq. The war and
occupation fractured the country and unleashed violent sectarian
divisions that continue to destabilize the region.
The corruption, lawlessness and instability undermining governance in Iraq to this day brought into question the idea of a “freedom agenda” executed with military force.
In the face of massive fraud in the November 2004
presidential election, Ukrainians poured into the streets of the Maidan
in Kiev to launch a campaign of civil resistance against the theft of
the vote by the candidate of the post-Soviet establishment, Viktor
Yanukovich.
Opposition candidates Viktor Yushchenko and Yulia
Tymoshenko joined in a united effort to rally the country behind demands
to respect the election results, and protesters braved bitter cold to
participate in sit-ins and strikes. Finally, on Dec. 3, Ukraine’s
Supreme Court annulled the election. In a fresh vote, Mr. Yushchenko won with 52 percent, leading to his inauguration as president on Jan. 23, 2005.
Ukraine’s democratic progress stalled as Mr. Yushchenko and Ms. Tymoshenko turned against each other, and Mr. Yanukovich won the 2010 presidential elections.
He dragged Ukraine back into authoritarianism and away from Europe,
provoking a second popular uprising — the Maidan Revolution of February
2014, and a new chance for democracy to work in Ukraine.
Ben Ali Is Toppled in Tunisia, Optimism Spreads and Quickly Fades
After 23 years as president, Tunisian strongman Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali fled
the country following a month of grassroots protests. The popular
uprising against authoritarian rule spread to Egypt, generating mass
protests that led to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11, 2011, after 29 years in power.
Similar
protests erupted in Bahrain, Libya, Syria and Yemen. The initial
optimism that the "Arab Spring" would topple dictatorships and
democratize the region has faded as the revolution has folded into
sectarianism and repression.
Egyptian soldiers guarding access to Tahrir Square, Cairo, on July 8, 2013.
Credit
Hassan Ammar/Associated Press
July 3, 2013
Democracy Is Set Back in Egypt
Egypt’s political transition imploded when the chief of the army,
Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew the elected president, Mohamed
Morsi, and suspended the Egyptian Constitution in response to widespread
protests against Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood government.
General
Sisi proceeded to launch the most severe campaign of political
repression in Egypt in decades: killing hundreds and sentencing hundreds
more to death. According to Human Rights Watch,
more than 41,000 people have faced arrest or criminal charges.
Democracy has been set back for the foreseeable future in Egypt, and
many members of the Muslim Brotherhood have turned to violence in the
belief that peaceful methods have failed.
Anti-government protesters blocked many major intersections and polling
stations and angered residents who were unable to cast their ballot in
the February 2014 election.
Credit
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
May 22, 2014
Thailand's Military Overthrows the Government, Again
After six months
of street protests and political polarization between pro- and
anti-monarchy forces, the Thai military staged what was at least the
12th military coup in the country since 1932; displacing parliament, imposing censorship, and arresting and detaining politicians and anticoup activists.
"In a cynical sleight of hand," read an editorial
in The Times in April 2015, "Thailand’s military junta lifted martial
law last week only to replace it with even more draconian powers for the
ruling military junta led by Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha."
Now that the CNRP opts not to confront directly with the Yuon slave party CPP and Ah Roleuy Hun Sen, I think that is a good strategy, giving the CNRP time to find an effective way to win this next election. Helping the CNRP wins this next election is the right thing to do. If the Yuon slave party CPP does not relinquish its power, we will fight from there. But this time we have experience and we will approach the problem differently and effectively.
The cheap KI's administrators must remove its requirement of the commentators' IDs if they did not sell their heads to Ah Kwack Hun Sen and Yuon.
Now that the CNRP opts not to confront directly with the Yuon slave party CPP and Ah Roleuy Hun Sen, I think that is a good strategy, giving the CNRP time to find an effective way to win this next election.
ReplyDeleteHelping the CNRP wins this next election is the right thing to do. If the Yuon slave party CPP does not relinquish its power, we will fight from there. But this time we have experience and we will approach the problem differently and effectively.
The cheap KI's administrators must remove its requirement of the commentators' IDs if they did not sell their heads to Ah Kwack Hun Sen and Yuon.
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