consolidation of democracies

the consolidations of democracies it depends by 2 component: legitimation and anchorage
with legitimation we mean positive behaviors and attitudes at democracy rules and structures, the population is sure that there isn t a regime better than the democracy regime.
the sense of anchorage is a bit more complicated, entails the existence of some anchors which guarantied the link among the population and an "exclusive legitimation", because actually it s not really obvious that all people want and feel the democracy the best regime...for many reasons. we have 4 anchors, good parties organization when the contest is highly ideologized; costumer policies; corporative policies; parties as gatekeeper.

all these anchors could have also a negative impact when the legitimation is strong and is/becomes strong. think for example at the costumers policies in italy when the legitimation was not inclusive but the parties were able to menage all the economic sector and give any kind of benefits. at the beginning was good to link the population at the institutional structure which represent the democratic regime, but when the legitimation became inclusive people start to be against this kind of policies and the parties which made fall down in 1990-1995. (there are others many causes which caused the collapse of the italian political/parties system in that years)

lt s so naturally think that to consolidate the democracy, a country need of a mix of legitimation and anchorage, but if the legitimation is inclusive and strong, the anchorage have to be , and usually are, weak.

but how it was the consolidation in greece, portugal and italy? let's see

In Italy and Greece the parties were good organized in a contest highly ideologizated and the costumers policies were diffused in greece like in Italy. Portugal had as well these 2 condition but also the born, re-born of corporative institution. as we already said the consolidation is given by a mix of legitimation and anchorage and after have looked which anchorage these countries used and the grade of utilization we can have 4 different process of . consolidation
consolidation trough the state characterized by an high inclusive legitimation, good organization parties
consolidation trough elitè high inclusive legitimation, not strong parties, the economic elitè menage the work of the state
consolidation trough parties low inclusive legitimation, but strong parties which cane be able to menage all the affairs in the state and give any kind of benefits
maintenance low inclusive legitimation, absence of structure able to be in touch with society, the consolidation in this case is difficult to have.

Portugal: dimension of control includes: developed parties (also if less that italians and greeks), parties in touch with civil society, high inclusive legitimation, integration of communist party in a democratic contest. we have all the instruments to consider the portugal consolidation, a consolidation trough the state
Italy: low inclusive legitimation caused by the strong ideological contest among communist party ( the biggest in west europe), considered anti-system party*, and democratic-christian party.
the same ideological contest brought the party to have a great organization in the society and try to take the power in every affairs to have the possibility to give benefits to the citizens and exchange with the vote. So utilization of developed parties organization, costumer policies, occupation by the parties of the total society affairs. a real consolidation trough parties.
Greece: the parties organization was high organized like the costumer policies, but in opposition with italian situation, the communist party was so much weaker than the italian one. while the wing party was already democratic, that s why the legitimation was more inclusive than in Italy. researcher say that is a consolidation trough the state but I think that it quite close to the border with the consolidation trough parties.

I hope you understood what I wrote, at least gigi and lee:) if not ask me.