Foreign Military Intervention and Democratization: A Comparative Analysis of Germany, Japan, Italy and South Korea

This dissertation examines the relationship between foreign military intervention and democratization. It focuses on the conditions that contribute to the democratization of the occupied countries and looks at the cases of Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea. These countries are similar in that they all experienced military foreign intervention, have been non-democratic regimes prior to military intervention and became democracies after the intervention. The analysis aims to shed light on what conditions were conducive or not to the democratization of Germany, Japan, and Italy and South Korea.;Using the inductive research method and secondary data analysis this work finds that while military intervention in Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea was an important factor in deposing non-democratic regimes, it was not the only important and conducive condition to democratization. While the goals, policies and commitment of the occupying power were important to democratization, the changes in political culture of the occupied elites and population and the character of security environment were also two other important conditions.;The comparative analysis shows that when the goals, policies and commitment of the occupying force were oriented toward democratization, when the occupied elites and population moved toward a political culture displaying democratic patterns and behavior, and when the security environment was not characterized by wars or where the security threat was high but addressed by the external power, these conditions were both conducive for and contributed to democratization. The analysis finds these conditions in the cases of Germany, Japan and Italy but not in South Korea. The absence of such conditions in the case of South Korea may explain why South Korea did not democratize under the US military occupation and when it occurred, it took more than four decades.