The Role of Ordinary People in Democratization
![handle is hein.journals/jnlodmcy19 and id is 124 raw text is: THE ROLE OF ORDINARY PEOPLE
IN DEMOCRATIZATION
Christian Welzel and Ronald Inglehart
Christian Welzel is professor of political science at Jacobs University
in Bremen, Germany, and is a member of the World Values Survey Ex-
ecutive Committee. Ronald Inglehart is professor of political science at
the University of Michigan. He directs the World Values Surveys and his
books include Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy (with
Christian Welzel, 2005).
Human empowerment is becoming an increasingly important driving
force behind democratization. Although elite bargaining was central
when representative democracy first emerged and still plays an impor-
tant role, the development of effective democracy reflects the acquisi-
tion by ordinary people of resources and values that enable them effec-
tively to pressure elites. The importance of this process, called human
empowerment, is generally underestimated.
There is a tension between two different conceptions of democracy.
The narrow concept hinges on suffrage and considers any regime that
holds competitive, free, fair, and regular elections to be a democracy.' In
this scenario, elite agreement is key and mass preferences matter little.
Advocates of this position argue that certain requisites of democracy
such as social mobilization are unimportant. This construct is often la-
beled electoral democracy.2
Critics of this view charge that it accepts even the most elite-manipu-
lated societies as democratic as long as they hold competitive elections,
and ignores the principle that genuine democracy is government by the
people in which mass preferences shape public policy. Advocates of this
broader concept contend that true democracy goes far beyond the right
to vote. Liberal democracy, as opposed to electoral democracy, is
based on mass voice in self-governance.3 The emergence and survival of
democracy therefore depends on social preconditions such as the wide
distribution of participatory resources and a trusting, tolerant public that
prizes free choice.4
Journal of Democracy Volume 19, Number ] January 2008
© 2008 National Endowment for Democracy and The Johns Hopkins University Press](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/jnlodmcy19&div=14&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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The Role of Ordinary People in Democratization
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