Review of Democracy

Democracy is a book that I used heavily on my seminar paper, written by Charles Tilly. In the first book, Democracy, Tilly described the different definitions of a working democracy with a heavy emphasis on the four dimensions of a working democracy. The four dimensions are: breadth, equality, protection and mutually binding consultation. Tilly states, in terms of breadth, "at one extreme, every household has its own distinctive relation to the state, but only a few households have full rights of citizenship; at the other, all adult citizens belong to the same homogeneous category of citizenship." (Tilly, 14) Moreover, Tilly states, in terms of equality that "at one extreme, ethnic categories fall into a well-defined rank of order with very unequal rights and obligations; at the other ethnicity has no significant connection with political rights or obligations and largely equal rights prevail between native-born and naturalized citizens."(Tilly, 14)

These two concepts do not completely define democracy; they affect citizenship when alone, but with protection and mutually binding consultation, it defines a working democracy. Protection refers to the extent at which protection is provided against the state's arbitrary actions whereas mutually binding consultation is on one end, "seekers of state benefits must bribe, cajole, threaten, or use third-party influence to get anything at all." (Tilly, 14) On the other end, "state agents have clear, enforceable obligations to deliver benefits by category of recipient." (Tilly, 15) The movement of a regime towards the higher ends of the four dimensions qualifies as democratization; the lower ends indicate a de-democratization.

Tilly also discusses the importance of state capacity and the three clusters of changes in democratization. State capacity refers to the extent to which existing distributions of non-state resources, activities, and interpersonal connections are altered by interventions of state agents in those existing resources, activities and interpersonal connections as well as relation within those distributions. (Tilly, 16) Democratization would fail if the state lacks the capacity to supervise and enforce political decisions. The first of the three clusters of changes refers to an increase or decrease of the integration between interpersonal networks of trust, such as religious membership and public politics. Second cluster involves the increase or decrease in the insulation from public politics of the major categorical inequalities such as but not limited to gender or race, around which citizens organize their daily lives. The third cluster involves the increase or decrease i the autonomy of major power centers such as warlord, patron-client chains, armies and, religious institutions with respect to public politics. (Tilly, 23)

These concepts help explain the democratization process and I utilized them to explain the democratization process in Thailand.