Question

Give an account of the expansion of democracy in the world after 1980.

Answer 1

Hint: The first phase of the expansion of Democracy began with the French Revolution in 1789, which inspired many struggles for democracy all over Europe. The next phase was the period of decolonization after the end of the Second World War. The most recent phase got its big push after 1980.

Complete step-by-step solution:
After 1980, a new wave of democracy came as democracy was revived in several countries of Latin America. This process was accelerated by the disintegration of the Soviet Union. In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union controlled many of its neighboring communist countries. During 1989-90, Poland and several other countries became free from the control of the Soviet Union. These countries chose to become democracies. In 1991, finally the Soviet Union itself broke down. The Soviet Union comprised 15 Republics and after this episode, all the constituent Republics emerged as independent countries out of which most of them became democracies. Thus the break up of the Soviet Union and the end of Soviet control on East Europe led to a big change in the political map of the world. Major changes also took place in India’s neighborhood in this period. In the 1990s, Bangladesh and Pakistan made a transition from army rule to democracy. The king of Nepal sacrificed many of his powers to become a constitutional monarch, guided by elected leaders. These changes were not however permanent. In Pakistan, General Musharraf brought back army rule in 1999. The new king of Nepal took back political freedoms that people had won in the previous decade and dismissed the elected government in 2005. Yet in this period the overall trend points to more and more countries opting for democracy as their chosen form of government and this phase still continues. About 140 countries were holding multi-party elections by 2005. This number was higher than ever before. Since 1980, significant advances have been made towards democracy in more than 80 previously non-democratic countries.

Note: But even after such significant advances towards democracy, there are many countries where people cannot express their opinion freely and still cannot elect their leaders. Countries like China, Cuba, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, etc. still do not hold elections and thus citizens of these countries do not have the right to elect their leaders.