About half of the world’s countries are now democracies. The end of World War I led to the birth of many democracies. However, during the 1930s, many of these young democracies then reverted to being autocratic.
After World War II, the number of democracies began growing again. But it was the end of
the Cold War that led to a more dramatic increase in the number of democracies.
Which political systems does the ‘Regimes of the World’ classification distinguish?
(i) In closed autocracies, citizens do not have the right to choose either the chief executive of the government or the legislature through multi- party elections.
(ii) In electoral autocracies, citizens have the right to choose the chief executive and the legislature through multi-party elections; but they lack some freedoms, such as the freedoms of association or expression, that make the elections meaningful, free, and fair.
(iii) In electoral democracies, citizens have the right to participate in meaningful, free and fair, and multi-party elections.
(iv) In liberal democracies, citizens have further individual and minority rights, are equal before the law, and the actions of the executive are constrained by the legislative and the courts.
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