"King of the Mountain," or Why Postcommunist Autocracies Have Bad Institutions

Abstract

The authors analyze levels of democracy and state capacity (including quality of institutions) in the postcommunist countries over the past two decades and consider the theoretical implications of the relationship between these variables. In particular, they cast serious doubt on the general validity of the J-curve hypothesis. They present their own informal "king of the mountain" model. The problemWhat is the relationship between the quality of institutions and the character of a political regime? 1 In what way are various levels of state capacity connected with regime trajectories? Why do all developed and consolidated democracies have good institutions that ensure law and order, observance of English translation © 2014 M.E. Sharpe, Inc., from the Russian text © 2013 "Politicheskie issledovaniia." "'Tsar' gory,' ili pochemu v postkommunisticheskikh avtokratiiakh plokhie instituty," POLIS: Politicheskie issledovaniia, 2013, no. 2, pp. 125-42.