Post-Communist Democratization

Abstract

Democracy is not just a matter of constitutions, parliaments, elections, parties and the rule of law. In order to see if or how democracy works, we must attend to what people make of it, and what they think they are doing as they engage with politics, or as politics engages them. This book examines the way democracy and democratization are thought about and lived by people in China, Russia and eleven other countries in the post-communist world. It shows how democratic politics (and sometimes authoritarian politics) work in these countries, and generates insights into the prospects for different kinds of political development. The authors explore the implications for what is probable and possible in terms of trajectories of political reform, and examine four roads to democratization: liberal, republican, participatory and statist. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of comparative politics, political theory and post-communist studies.

Sorting Out Support for Democracy: A Q‐Method Study

“…This pattern largely holds for orientations to the political rights and civil liberties of procedural democracy, most intensely the rights to vote (#13), to run for office (#14), and human rights (#48). To this point, Chilean democrats resemble previously discovered democratic belief profiles in Chile (Carlin, ), Mexico (Schedler & Sarsfield, ), Argentina (Carlin & Moseley, ; Powers, ), Russia (Carnaghan, ), Belarus, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria (Dryzek & Holmes, ). Yet even as they profess support for the participation of “extremist parties” (#3), they express mild intolerance towards Marxist parties (#43) and neo‐Nazis (#47).…”

“…This name reflects O'Donnell's () seminal thesis that Latin American publics tend to grant leaders vast, nondemocratic powers when crisis strikes. Although Chile is remarkable for its lack of delegative patterns of governance despite the executive's exaggerated formal lawmaking powers (Siavelis, ), orientations of a similar hue are detected with Q sorts in the former Yugoslavia and Belarus (Dryzek & Holmes, ) and in public opinion data for Chile (Carlin, ) and elsewhere in Latin America (Gronke & Levitt, ; Walker, ). Strong liberal (#1, 2), unconditional (#4, 5), and committed (#11, 12) orientations to democratic governance are signature contradictions within the profile.…”

“…Political psychologists have used Q‐methods in ways germane to this study. Dryzek and Holmes () and Dryzek and Berejikian (), for example, identify broad modes of democratic discourse in postcommunist countries and the United States, respectively. Their results provide valuable points of comparison for the democratic support profiles below.…”

Ermenistan’da Miiliyetçilik Ve Demokratıkleşme Süreci: Dağlık Karabağ Meselesının Etkisi

“…Suspiciously, the course of events changed when Vazgen Sarkisian with several other influential politicians were assassinated "…in parliamentary chamber in October 1999 by [militants who are thought to have] alleged ties to Dashnaks". 89 Sarkisian's brother, Aram, was appointed as the new Premier of Armenia, but his governance was also did not last long when Kocharian dismissed Aram Sarkisian and appointed Markarian as the new PM with Serge Sargsian as the Defence Minister of the government in 2000. The reasoning was rumors about ex-PM's intent to sell out Karabakh to Azerbaijan.…”

Dissidence, Republicanism, and Democratic Change

“…But it is equally clear that dimensions of participatory democracy have taken on a certain significance in the Polish democratic architecture in their own right. 133 In this, although clearly not dominant, a "civic republican" political culture, which can be regarded as the "most direct successor to the 'politics of truth' pursued by Solidarity," and in which forms of direct democracy have to some extent become a commonplace, 134 is clearly reflected in the Polish constitutional and legal structures.…”