Democratization beyond National Capitals: Clues from the First Wave

How do democratization efforts in national capitals result in democracy throughout a country? Most studies of subnational democracy and democratization examine countries where subnational variation in democracy continues to this day, so their utility in answering this question is limited.  General theories of democratization implicitly assume that democracy appears throughout a country once national leaders opt to introduce greater civil liberties and competitive elections, so they also provide little help.  This paper takes a first step to understanding how subnational variation in democracy is overcome by learning from the experiences of first-wave countries where democracy is now evenly present throughout the territories.  In the paper, I propose four possible pathways to the even development of democracy within countries—direction, collaboration, diffusion, and emergence.    Evidence from England and France illustrates three of the pathways and suggests the possibility of the fourth.  The proposed pathways can help link the concepts of democratic transition and consolidation and ultimately improve general democratization theories.