Dankwart Rustow

Who was Dankwart Rustow?

Dankwart Alexander Rustow was a professor of political science and sociology. He is perhaps best known as the 'father of transitology,' a school of thought in the field of democratization studies. In his seminal 1970 article 'Transitions to Democracy: Toward a Dynamic Model,' Rustow broke from the prevailing schools of thought on how countries became democratic. Disagreeing with the heavy focus on necessary social and economic pre-conditions for democracy, he argued that only national unity was a necessary precondition for democracy. Beyond that, the most important thing for a transition from authoritarian rule to democracy was consensus between elites on the new rules of the game.