The first is rationalization, which involves the movement from particularism to universalism, or, from a political standpoint, a focus on functional differentiation and achievement criteria.
[4] Under the framework of political development as institutional development, political decay occurs when institutions fail to change or adapt when they become unnecessary due to social or economic changes.
Dan Halvorson challenges the idea of political decay as an institutional failure by claiming that the idea of political decay is tied to a Western ideal of political institution without taking into account widely-varying cultural institutions and the inability of post-colonial states to adapt to Western ideals.
[6] Institutions of the Roman Empire government failed to meet the moral and economic needs of the citizens, resulting in the conditions that would facilitate political decay and the fall of the Roman state.
[1]: 402 The social and economic forces that established political stability could change or disappear, leading to internal instability.
Social developments, such as the proliferation of literacy, lead to the rise and spread of new ideas.
The elected president Chandrika Kumaratunga attempted to change the constitution and dissolve the parliament in order to remain in power, leading to sudden changes in the structure of the law-making body.
[13] Huntington's former student, Francis Fukuyama, has developed the theory of political decay by analysing the sclerosis of democratic institutions in the United States and elsewhere.
For example, in the United States, the emerging financial oligarchy is entrenching income and wealth inequality and reducing social mobility which is leading to a breakdown in society, the social contract and confidence in the government.
Fukuyama focuses on the concept of political decay in the framework of a history of the rise and fall of Chinese dynasties and the causes of political and social stability during each dynasty as well as in Russian and Islamic governments.