Southern democracy

Southern democracy is term used in political science to describe systems of government which are functionally more than nominally democratic, but which are characteristically illiberal, with significant power in government being wielded by those outside the democratic system. The "southern" descriptor in the term refers to how the model is most prevalent in the global south, but also more specifically, the south of Coius.

The term was first coined and applied by Albert Kavagamu, a Dezevauni political theorist, author and later leader of the Liberal Party, in his book The End of Politics. He capitalised it as "Southern democracy", but since then, it has been more common (including in his own works) to leave the term uncapitalised, as in "southern democracy". The term has found some currency in media outside of academia.

Classification

Kavagamu, in The End of Politics, published in 1999, considered Senria, Xiaodong, x, x and x to be extant examples of the type of government he called "Southern democracy". Characteristics of Southern democracy, according to him, were authoritarianism, social conservatism (in particular a lack of pluralism), nationalism, power being held in non-democratic hierarchical institutions such as militaries and bureaucracies, and government policies which emphasised stability. He classified other democracies, in contrast, as council-socialist, or liberal, but these were not novel terms compared to "Southern". Council-socialist democracies in his reckoning included Swetania and Dezevau, whereas liberal democracies included Gaullica, Valentir and Estmere. He justified his choice of the term as an attempt to avoid coining something unintuitive, prescriptive, or vague.

Kavagamu pointed to Senria as "an archetypal Southern democracy" in The End of Politics. He noted that the country "transparently exhibited" all the characteristics of a Southern democracy, including a history of authoritarian strongman rule (particularly exemplified by Katurou Imahara and Takesi Takahata); a strong emphasis on nationalism in politics; the outsized political influence held by the bureaucracy of the Senrian state, the Aikokutou's party structure, and the Senrian Republican Armed Forces; and an opposition to political and ethnic pluralism. He additionally noted that many of the traits of Southern democracy - particularly nationalism and a non-pluralist republicanism - were "codified" in Imaharism, the guiding ideology of the ruling Aikokutou, in a way they were not in many other Southern democracies. He also noted, though, that Senria seemed to be moving away from this in some areas under Kiyosi Haruna, citing the country's increasing political liberalization, concessions to ethnic minorities, and the reduction of the military's political power.

However, <someone else> in <some other book or paper> considered <some other members>.

Alternative terms

Proposed alternative terms include xxx, .

Response

In political scientific academia, the term has been sometimes criticised for giving a geographical appellation to something that is not necessarily delimited by region of the world. More often, it has been criticised for typecasting and exoticising democracy in the developing world, with critics pointing to <x> as an Eastern country which could be classified as a southern democracy.

Marshal Karaman claimed in 2001 that Kumuso could never be a southern democracy because of its central location in Coius.

In global politics, the term has also sometimes been employed or disavowed. <stuff about what leaders of southern democracies think about the term>

See also

• International Forum for Developing States
• International Council for Democracy