The Problems of Simultaneous Transitions

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Abstract
Democratization means giving a political voice to groups and individuals that previously had not been able to make their demands heard. Some such demands, whether symbolic (e.g., dignified treatment or a role in public definitions of the polity) or economic (e.g., legal protection of a certain ethnic group against discrimination), will require no additional expenditure by the state. Most demands relevant to public policy from newly enfranchised actors, however, will require additional expenditures, as in the case of the extension of any kind of government benefit or service (from public schools to sewage systems) to additional persons or communities. In the face of such demands, the incumbent government (which may be either a new democratic government or a reformed authoritarian regime) has three options: it can increase overall spending; it can reallocate current spending to meet new democratic demands; or it can ignore the demands that would require additional expenditures.

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