IS THERE A FOURTH WAVE OF DEMOCRACY OR NOT? AN EVALUATION OF THE LATEST THEORIES

Abstract

There is some ambiguity in approaching the concept of democracy wave, especially when we talk about the period of the third wave and the beginning of a possible fourth one. We will try to underline the main views related to the extent of the third wave of democracy and the possibility of the occurrence of a fourth one which, although it does not comply with the classical theory of the waves, must be evaluated separately because of some special features, distinct from those of democracies included in the previous wave. We consider it is necessary to refer to the fourth wave, as represented by the countries from the Central and Eastern Europe that have followed a common line of action during the transition and which, with inherent peculiarities, have established some very important goals: building democracy, restoration the freedom of the citizens, the adoption of a market economy and the integration into the European and global structures.As we have shown, there are enough arguments to hold up this view. There are also some counter-arguments, which could challenge the assumption that the fourth wave was triggered by the transitions of the Warsaw Pact countries. The main problem is that there wasn’t clearly defined an opposite wave able to show a regression in the democratization of the third wave.