@article{2019,title={UNDERSTANDING THE CLASS-BASED EXPLANATIONS OF THE DEMOCRATIZATION LITERATURE},abstractNode={Recent years have witnessed a renewed attention in the structuralist explanations of democratization that place elite action in the center of democratization process. Building on the social class literature, scholars of New Structuralism offer new insights to the democratization literature especially through their re-examination of class relations. In this essay, I will first review the major findings of the New Structuralists. This study argues that social class literature made great contributions to our understanding of democratization by bringing a simple yet powerful explanation to the process of democratization. Recent studies, have also contributed to the literature in various ways. First, they brought the concept of inequality to the center of the studies and explained how the level of inequality determines the nature of the class conflict as well as the possible political outcomes. Second, by making a distinction between income and landholding inequality and showing that these two types of inequalities might lead to different political outcomes, these studies showed that inequality is a complex concept and further research is needed on conceptualization. Third, this strand of the literature provided a coherent and plausible causal mechanism to the modernization theory thereby furthered our understanding regarding the relationship between economic development and democracy. In light of all these contributions, it can be argued that Social Class theory is one of the most important elements of the democratization literature. },author={Alper Tolga BULUT},year={2019},journal={Turkish Studies-Social Sciences}}