A democratic revolution is a political science term denoting a revolution in which a democracy is instituted, replacing a previous non-democratic government, or in which revolutionary change is brought about through democratic means.
According to Alexis de Tocqueville, a democracy, as well as other forms of regimes, is a social condition. It holds a moral, philosophical, social and political orientation of a people. It is a way of behaving.[1] This means that revolution in general shape behaviour. For democratic revolution, this behaviour gets more free and equal. Tocqueville's idea of a democratic revolution is that it is a steady advance of equality, which means that over time all people will be more equal.[2]
Democratic revolutions can be divided into different approaches.
What makes democratic revolutions different from other forms of revolution is the lack of violence, in most cases. Democratic revolution is not harsh and does not make negative judgements on other cultures or regime types, yet it incorporates a clear notion of reform. Other societies are becoming better and better.[3]
Moreover, revolution is a notion implying sudden discontinuity and movement to a new regime. It is to be said that whenever there is no new regime, a revolution has failed. Democratic revolution, in contrast, does not necessarily imply how long the process will take. Formlessness is an intrinsic problem of democratic revolutions. When transitions can be (mis)interpreted as a long process, it becomes difficult to recede landmarks of failure or success into the flux of political and economic events. It is hard to know when a party is winning because there are no particular great victories or defeats that serve as milestones. An example lies in the democratic revolution of Brazil: "the genius of the Brazilian transformation is that it is virtually impossible to say at what point Brazil stopped being a dictatorship and became a democracy".[3]
It involves revising a country's constitution to allow for the people to have the power to have:
On April 25, 1974, an almost bloodless military coup ended over 40 years of dictatorship in Portugal. Led by the Armed Forces Movement, the uprising was fueled by opposition to the country’s colonial wars in Africa. The coup quickly evolved into a popular revolution as thousands of citizens joined rebel troops in Lisbon, signaling the collapse of the regime. This transition led to the restoration of civil liberties and the establishment of a parliamentary democracy under the leadership of General AntĂłnio de SpĂnola. [5]
In February 1986, a series of demonstrations on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) led to the removal of Ferdinand Marcos after twenty years of rule. The movement, characterized by civil resistance against martial law and reported human rights violations, resulted in the Marcos family's departure into exile. This transition enabled the restoration of parliamentary processes and is studied as an example of non-violent political change. [6]
In November 1989, a student protest in Prague against police brutality sparked a nationwide movement that ended 40 years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Led by the Civic Forum and dissident Václav Havel, the peaceful revolution relied on mass demonstrations and a general strike. By December, the communist government resigned, signaling a transition to a multiparty democracy with Havel’s election as president. [7]
