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Mass communications media play a potentially crucial role both in democratization and in ensuring democracy's survival. The essays in this volume analyse differing aspects of the complex relationship between the media and democracy in a diverse range of national contexts

Cover -- Contents -- List of Boxes -- Preface -- Introduction -- Democratization Today -- The Meaning of Democratization -- Democratization and Democracy -- The Global Politics of Democratization -- The Purpose and Structure of This Book -- 1 Democracy -- Democracy: A Simple Concept? -- From Direct to Liberal Democracy -- Empirical Democratic Theory -- Critiques of Empirical Democratic Theory -- Alternative Approaches to Democracy -- Conclusion -- 2 Democratization in Historical Perspective -- Democratization as Waves -- Explaining Democratization in History -- Contemporary Democratization -- Conclusion -- 3 Explaining Democratization -- Traditional Approaches -- Modernization Theory -- Historical Sociology -- The Agency Approach -- An Alternative Approach: The State, Civil Society and the Global Political Economy -- Conclusion -- 4 Democratization and the State -- Democratization of the State -- Institutional Transformation -- The Limitations of Institutional Change -- Obstacles to the Democratization of the State -- Conclusion -- 5 Democratization and Civil Society -- Civil Society and Democracy -- Conceptualizing the Role of Civil Society in Democratization -- Civil Society Organizations and the Making of New Democracies -- The International Dimensions of Civil Society -- Conclusion -- 6 The Global Politics of Democratization -- The Changing International System and Democracy -- Discourses of Democratization -- Democracy Assistance, Promotion and Policing -- The Securitization Agenda -- Conclusion -- 7 Democratization in Europe -- Southern Europe -- East and Central Europe -- The Balkans -- The Russian Federation and its Neighbours -- Theorizing the Transitions -- The State -- Democratization and Civil Society -- Global Factors -- Conclusion -- 8 Democratization in Latin America -- Latin American Politics in Historical Perspective.

A regulatory process of "democratizing the media" based on recent constitutional guarantees and a 2013 communications law is under way in Ecuador. The initiative comes from a demand for new forms of social accountability and participation in the mass media after the Latin American experience of media companies'direct engagement in coups and the destabilization of progressive governments. Media democratization is seen as necessary for the construction of democratic societies. It is distinct in Latin America from recent Northern approaches, which tend to be technocratic, suggesting democratic transformation through new online media and enhanced consumer options. Ecuador's process follows similar initiatives in Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay but is perhaps more articulate and systematic. It is instructive in that it builds on well-established public policy themes of the containment of monopoly power, redress of civil wrongs, and the promotion of participation and diversity. While media corporations mostly seek to disqualify debate on media regulation, Ecuador's approach deserves closer examination. Ecuador está llevando a cabo un proceso de "democratización de medios" basado en las recientes garantías constitucionales y la ley de comunicaciones de 2013. La iniciativa responde a una exigencia de nuevas formas de responsabilidad social y participación en los medios de comunicación masivos a raíz de experiencias latinoamericanas en las cuales ciertas compañías de medios han intervenido para desestabilizar o generar golpes de estado contra gobiernos progresistas. La democratización de los medios se considera necesaria para la construcción de sociedades democráticas, y esta aproximación se distingue de aquellas características del hemisferio norte con sus tendencias tecnocráticas, que sugieren que la transformación democrática se ha de llevar a cabo mediante nuevos medios en línea y opciones de consumo más amplias. El proceso ecuatoriano se suma a iniciativas similares en Venezuela, Bolivia, Argentina y Uruguay, pero es quizá más articulado y sistemático. Se basa en temas de política pública establecidos como la contención del poder monopólico, la rectificación de delitos civiles, y la promoción de la participación y la diversidad. Si bien las corporaciones de medios han buscado descalificar los debates en torno a la mencionada regulación, los esfuerzos ecuatorianos merecen ser examinados más de cerca.

Any country which attempts to establish accountability for past abuses of human rights during the process of democratization faces political, judicial, and ethical problems. With regard to politics, the question of which transitional justice measures are appropriate, functional, and feasible has to be decided for every individual case. A judicial approach has to decide which judicial standards to apply and how to justify prosecution. Finally, the ethical dilemmas of dealing with historical injustices have to be understood. There are no ready-made concepts to define guilt and justice. In many cases it is even difficult to tell the victims from the perpetrators. This study examines the different strategies subsumed under the term 'transitional justice' used by emerging democracies to deal with a legacy of human rights abuses. It explores the problems and challenges posed by different mechanisms of reconciliation and societal reintegration. While existing analyses of the contribution that transitional justice measures make to the process of social re-integration stress the importance of consensus among citizens and social groups for the emergence of trust and solidarity, this study suggests also thinking about how conflicts over competing 'truths' can help to build social capital and reconciliation. Noting a global diffusion of international legal norms, which means at least formal universal acceptance of basic rights and judicial procedures, it is argued that international justice cannot be a substitute for transitional justice measures taken by the domestic regime itself. Adapted from the source document.