Which 11 countries were democratic in 1941?
score:20
Since Samuel Huntington is quite popular in political science (which I guess the BBC derived its source from), I suspect that this group of 11 democracies is based on Huntington's thesis of Third Wave Democracy.
According to Huntington, the globe experienced three waves of democracy, starting from USA in 1828. For this first wave, Huntington used Jonathan Sunshine's minimal qualification for democratic state: (1) 50 percent of adult males are eligible to vote; and (2) a responsible executive who either must maintain majority support in an elected parliament or is chosen in periodic popular elections.
At the peak of first wave democracy, there were 29 democratic states in the world. Then Italy rose to fascism in 1922, and the reversal of first wave democracy began.
The first wave had its worst year in 1942, where there were only a few states which remained democratic:
- Finland
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- Australia
- Canada
- New Zealand
- United States
- Chile
You can read more about this on Huntington's Third Wave Democracy, or Roland Rich's introduction on his Pacific Asia in Quest of Democracy.
Upvote:-1
Ireland (1936)... I don’t want to open a can of worms but there are good arguments for that to read any of the following
Parliamentary Democracy: Ireland (1922) Ireland (1937) (One could also argue that it transitioned in 1949)
Constitutional Monarchy: Ireland (1922) Ireland (1936) Ireland (1937)
It depends how you define constitutional monarchy. Ireland was definitely one in 1922 (or at least was the same as U.K. and Canada). In 1936 a new constitution was established, which transferred some powers of the King (delegated to the Governor General) to the new President (effective 1937) However the King remained head of state officially (particularly when it came to foreign affairs and diplomatic relations) and Ireland remained in the Commonwealth.
The Republic of Ireland Act 1948 made Ireland a republic and removed any remaining powers of the King (automatically leaving the Commonwealth). At that point, Ireland was (and remains) a parliamentary democracy with an elected President as head of state (similar to Italy and Germany today) and with the president as the guardian of the constitution.
Upvote:5
Chile has a long tradition of democracy and by 1941 already had 100 years of democracy, albeit with brief interludes. In 1941 Pedro Aguirre Cerda was president of Chile, elected in 1938. He died at the end of 1941 and was replaced by Jeónimo Mendez until April 1942, when Juan Antonio Rios won the election. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_Chile
Upvote:8
Depends on how you define "democracy". Do you mean "one person, one vote" (universal adult suffrage)? Up until the early years of the 20th century women couldn't vote.
One could claim the USA didn't have full adult suffrage until after the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Likewise South Africa wasn't exactly a paragon of "one person, one vote" until the end of apartheid.
If however you define "democracy" as "anything that's not fascist or communist", then the situation changes. (Victors writing the history books and all that)
Upvote:10
Note: This is a partial and indicative list. I am looking for more information to improve it.
Update 2: It seems there is some controversy over the definition of democracy itself. Until further clarity it would be difficult to populate any such list.
- Switzerland (1802)
- Haiti (1860)
- Finland (1919)
- Turkey (1923)
- Ireland (1936)
- Lebanon (1941)
That makes it - 6
Presidential System of Democracy
- USA (1776)
- Mexico (1917) (Thanks to @World Engineer)
- UK (1688) (I am not sure of its inclusion, because if this is included then a significant region of western Europe may also be included so also Australia and New Zealand, which will take the number way beyond 11)
- Canada (1867) Independence through British North American Act 1867.
That makes it - 10
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