序論「民主化」と国際政治・経済

「民主化」と国際政治・経済

抄録

The end of the Cold War contributed to the heightening of interest in democratization among the students of international politics and economics. This is not only because the demise of the Russian and East European regimes strengthened the ideological hegemony of Western democracy but also because an increasing number of national and international actors came to get involved in the process of democratization in the developing and transition-economy countries.
However, the actual effects of such involvement have been much less than expected as demonstrated by the cases of Peru, China, Myanmar, Kosovo, and Central Asian republics. Such failures are partially due to the lack of systematic and theoretical research on the effects of prodemocracy involvement of foreign actors.
Theoretically, the assessment of the effects is closely associated with how we understand the consolidation of democracy. The advocates of the Lipset hypothesis will emphasize the importance of the assistance for economic development. However, the Lipset hypothesis is applicable only to a part of Asia. The transition approach of Schmitter & O'Donnell's, on which many of the contemporary foreign involvement are based, also has difficulties in explaining a long-term consolidation. The consolidation of democracy requires that the contending parties come to believe that they cannot exterminate their enemies and, therefore, need to make compromises and accept fair-play rules. This kind of situation can usually emerge only after the parties experience a long exhausting conflict or suffer from a traumatic event such as war or tyrannical repression. Therefore, foreign involvement needs to be of the kind that helps the contending parties learn, in the long run, how to live together peacefully. In this sense, the assistance from outside can only be secondary to the time-consuming efforts of the contending parties themselves.
As for the effect of democratization on international politics and economics, “democratic peace” is the subject most widely discussed among the students of international politics. However, it faces many criticisms including the one that emphasizes common preferences rather than a democratic “dyad” as a major variable to explain peace. The specialists of political economy and economics have shown interest in the relationship between democratization on the one hand and the integration into the world economy through neoliberal policies on the other. Some people regard them as contradictory while others believe they are complementary. Still others take the middle ground.
Since the field is new, many sub-themes in the field are full of controversies. We need to accumulate more research both on the impact of international involvement upon democratization and on repercussions of democratization on international politics and economics. The following ten articles represent the first step of this effort. The first six articles deal with effects of international environment and involvement upon democratization in China, Vietnam, Jordan, Benin, Central Asian republics, and postwar Germany. The following two articles analyze international involvement more generally. Our last two articles, on the other hand, touch upon how democratization affects international politics focusing on Southeast Asia and China.