Unsustainable Democracy: Postcolonial Autocratization and Its Long-Term Impact

• In Event: The Origins and Precariousness of Democracy: Historical Perspectives

Abstract

This paper explores why democracy fails too often in postcolonial states and the long-term political consequences of democratic failure. Many postcolonial countries held their first general election soon after the independence. However, before long, the initial democracy failed in most postcolonial states, regardless of the “developmental states” in East Asia or “weak states” in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, I argue that the urgency and prioritization of state building in these new states caused democracy to retreat more than was mandated in the first constitution. At the same time, postcolonial autocratization has deleterious effects on state building as the damaged democracy harms the quality of state-building by impeding the institutionalization process and lowering the quality of institutions in the new state. I provide empirical evidence at macro and micro levels: I construct the global dataset of all postcolonial states and the dataset on the bios of all lawmakers, political parties, and bills from the first republic of South Korea (1948-1960). Analyzing all bill propositions, lapses, passages, and bill sponsors during the first republic of South Korea (1948-1960), I show that the urgency of state building, which was facilitated by the external threat from North Korea, deteriorated democratic norms and practices within the South Korean legislature and politics. The power concentration on the ruling party and the leader, Syngman Rhee, in turn, hampered the institution building both in quantity and quality, which was critical in addressing diverse social and economic tensions and conflicts within the country. The findings suggest intrinsic tensions between contemporary state building and democracy, which led the founding fathers of many postcolonial new states to be a dictator – benevolent, relentless, or both.

Author

• Ji Yeon (Jean) Hong, University of Michigan