International Linkage and Democratization
By: Levitsky, Steven
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Contributor(s): WAY, Lucan.
Material type: 
ArticlePublisher: Washington, DC : The Johns Hopkins University Press , July 2005Subject(s): Democratização | Autoritarismo | País em Desenvolvimento | Western countries | Foreign relationsJournal of Democracy 16, 3, p. 20-34Abstract: This article presents a new framework for understanding the role of international factors in post-Cold War regime change.We treat the post-Cold War international environment as operating along two dimensions: western leverage, or governments' vulnerability to external pressure, and linkage to the West, or the density of a country's ties to the U.S., the European Union, and Western-led multilateral institutions. Both leverage and linkage raised the cost of authoritarianism during the post-Cold War period. However, mechanisms of leverage such as diplomatic pressure, or conditionality were--by themselves--rarely sufficient to democratize post-Cold War autocracies. Rather, the more subtle and diffuse effects of linkage contributed more consistently to democratization. The impact of linkage and leverage are examined in the context of post-Cold War hybrid or competitive authoritarian regimes.
This article presents a new framework for understanding the role of international factors in post-Cold War regime change.We treat the post-Cold War international environment as operating along two dimensions: western leverage, or governments' vulnerability to external pressure, and linkage to the West, or the density of a country's ties to the U.S., the European Union, and Western-led multilateral institutions. Both leverage and linkage raised the cost of authoritarianism during the post-Cold War period. However, mechanisms of leverage such as diplomatic pressure, or conditionality were--by themselves--rarely sufficient to democratize post-Cold War autocracies. Rather, the more subtle and diffuse effects of linkage contributed more consistently to democratization. The impact of linkage and leverage are examined in the context of post-Cold War hybrid or competitive authoritarian regimes.
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