Lika länder – olika demokratiseringar : En studie av demokratiseringarna i Spanien och Portugal

Sammanfattning

This study aims to investigate what effect membership in NATO has on the military of nondemocratic countries to add to the debate about whether the alliance has democratisingpotential. This is investigated by using a most-similar-systems design where the study investigates Spain and Portugal, the former having been democratised by a pacted transition whilst the regime in the latter was removed by the military in a coup. These countries are investigated regarding the main variables, membership in NATO and the role of the military during the democratisation, as well as relevant control variables. This design makes up for the fact that there only exist a few cases on non-democratic members of NATO. The analysis finds that the two investigated countries only differ regarding the main variables that are used in the study. Because of this, the study suggests that NATO could be a factor in deciding how a country is democratised. The study concludes that this result casts doubt on the argument that the alliance hasn´t had any effect on its´ members´ militaries.