Rose, Orange, and Tulip: The failed post-Soviet revolutions

2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 315-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theodor Tudoroiu
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Ruling Elites

In 2003–2005, democratic revolutions overthrew the Georgian, Ukrainian, and Kyrgyz post-Soviet authoritarian regimes. However, disillusioned citizens witness today their new leaders creating a Bonapartist regime, entering into open conflict with former revolutionary allies or being forced to accept cohabitation with leaders of the previous regime. This article argues that despite internationally acclaimed civic mobilisation, civil society's weakness seriously affected the three revolutionary processes. These were in fact initiated, led, controlled, and finally subordinated by former members of the authoritarian regimes' political elite. Finally, the supposedly democratic revolutions proved to be little more than a limited rotation of ruling elites within undemocratic political systems.

Electoral system as a motivation to reforming political system- The Iraqi model

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamall Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Political Reform ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Electoral Laws ◽  
The Masses

The flaws and major flaws in the political systems represent one of the main motives that push the political elite towards making fundamental reforms, especially if those reforms have become necessary matters so that: Postponing them or achieving them affects the survival of the system and the political entity. Thus, repair is an internal cumulative process. It is cumulative based on the accumulated experience of the historical experience of the same political elite that decided to carry out reforms, and it is also an internal process because the decision to reform comes from the political elite that run the political process. There is no doubt that one means of political reform is to push the masses towards participation in political life. Changing the electoral system, through electoral laws issued by the legislative establishment, may be the beginning of political reform (or vice versa), taking into account the uncertainty of the political process, especially in societies that suffer from the decline of democratic values, represented by the processes of election from one cycle to another. Based on the foregoing, this paper seeks to analyze the relationship between the Electoral and political system, in particular, tracking and studying the Iraqi experience from the first parliamentary session until the issuance of the Election Law No. (9) for the year (2020).

RUSSIA'S 2020 CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-32
Author(s):  
William PARTLETT
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Constitutional Change ◽  
Constitutional Amendments ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Authoritarian Populism ◽  
The People ◽  
Russian State ◽  
Russian Constitution

Abstract This article will place the 2020 amendments to the Russian Constitution in comparative perspective. Although these amendments were officially justified as strengthening the Russian state in order to tackle emerging new problems, they constitutionalise already-existing legislative trends from the last twenty years. They therefore do little to overcome existing problems of Russian state building. What was the reform process about then? It was intended to project the image of reform by involving the people in a staged process of constitutional change while further entrenching the power of the current political elite. The constitutional reforms therefore demonstrate the symbolic role that constitutional law can play in seeking to ensure the survival of mature or later-stage forms of authoritarian populism. This kind of ‘theatrical constitution-making’ is a broader reminder of how the expressive aspects of constitutional change can be (ab)used by established authoritarian regimes.

5. The Consequences of Democracy and Authoritarian Regimes

2019 ◽  
pp. 70-96
Author(s):  
Andrea Kendall-Taylor ◽  
Natasha Lindstaedt ◽  
Erica Frantz
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Key Questions

Key themes 72 Regime type and conflict 74 Regime type and terrorism 78 Regime type and economic performance 81 Regime type and quality of life 86 Regime type and corruption 89 Regime type and repression 92 Conclusion 94 Key Questions 94 Further Reading 95 So far we have focused on defining different types of political systems. We discussed how to distinguish democracy from autocracy and the rising prevalence of ...

scholarly journals Regime legitimation, not nation-building: Media commemoration of the 1917 revolutions in Russia’s neo-authoritarian state

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 335-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Precious N Chatterje-Doody ◽  
Vera Tolz
Keyword(s):  
Nation Building ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Global Media ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Aligned Media ◽  
Russian Identity

Scholars predicted that official Russian commemorations of the centenary of the 1917 revolutions would prioritise ‘reconciliation and accord’ between pro- and anti-communists. Such a frame might help construct a new post-Soviet Russian identity. Yet, in 2017, state-affiliated political and media actors gave accounts that contrasted with their previous narratives and with each other. Domestic state-aligned media were unprecedentedly negative about the revolutions’ events and enduring legacies, while Russia’s international broadcaster, Russia Today, emphasised the revolutions’ positive international legacies. We explain this paradox by arguing that regimes of commemoration are directly related to political systems: in neo-authoritarian regimes such as contemporary Russia, history is not used primarily for nation-building, but to build legitimacy for the ruling regime. Referencing similar practices in other neo-authoritarian regimes, we show how state-affiliated actors selectively co-opt interpretations of historical events that circulate in the global media ecology, to ‘arrest’ the ‘memory of the multitude’. Simultaneously, they reinforce core messages that legitimise the existing government.

Reassessing the Links between Regime Type and Economic Performance: Why Some Authoritarian Regimes Show Stable Growth and Others Do Not

2013 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siddharth Chandra ◽  
Nita Rudra
Keyword(s):  
Economic Performance ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Public Deliberation ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Decentralized Decision Making ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Stable Growth

This analysis challenges claims that regime type determines national economic performance, and hypothesizes that the level of public deliberation, rather than broad categories of regime type, is the driver of national economic performance across political systems; specifically, that negotiations, disagreements, and compromises between decentralized decision-making partisans (e.g., citizens, business representatives, professional associations, labor, and public administrators) are the underlying causal mechanism explaining the non-monotonic relationship between different types of political system and economic performance. Countries with high levels of public deliberation more often experience stable growth outcomes, while other countries can make radical changes in economic policy with uncertain outcome. The variation in public deliberation within regime type is significant, especially amongst authoritarian regimes. One startling implication is that, in certain situations, impressive gains in economic growth can be achieved only at the expense of active negotiation and participation in the policy-making process.

scholarly journals Coup Agency and Prospects for Democracy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holger Albrecht ◽  
Kevin Koehler ◽  
Austin Schutz
Keyword(s):  
Military Intervention ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Democratic Transitions ◽  
Military Interventions ◽  
Security Personnel ◽  
The Military ◽  
Global Data

Abstract This research note introduces new global data on military coups. Conventional aggregate data so far have conflated two distinct types of coups. Military interventions by leading officers are coups “from above,” characterized by political power struggles within authoritarian elite coalitions where officers move against civilian elites, executive incumbents, and their loyal security personnel. By contrast, power grabs by officers from the lower and middle ranks are coups “from below,” where military personnel outside of the political elite challenge sitting incumbents, their loyalists, and the regime itself. Disaggregating coup types offers leverage to revise important questions about the causes and consequences of military intervention in politics. This research note illustrates that coup attempts from the top of the military hierarchy are much more likely to be successful than coups from the lower and middle ranks of the military hierarchy. Moreover, coups from the top recalibrate authoritarian elite coalitions and serve to sustain autocratic rule; they rarely produce an opening for a democratic transition. Successful coups from below, by contrast, can result in the breakdown of authoritarian regimes and generate an opening for democratic transitions.

scholarly journals Euro-Atlantic security before and after COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Shota Gvineria
Keyword(s):  
Turning Point ◽  
International System ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Hybrid Warfare ◽  
Security Environment ◽  
Corona Virus ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Before And After

AbstractContemporary global power competition has turned the world into a hybrid battlefield. In modern battlefield, authoritarian regimes have the strategic advantage of being irresponsible, reckless and aggressive. This advantage is combined with the ability of the authoritarian regimes to find cheap and effective - short of war - solutions for achieving geopolitical objectives. In past decades authoritarian regimes such as Russia and China have been actively applying hybrid strategies against the Western dominated rules based international system. Those strategies are being constructed based on identification and utilization of the vulnerabilities of the democratic political systems, institutions and societies. Pandemic crisis caused by unpredictable and unprecedented spread of the mutated new Corona virus, have underlined vulnerabilities and opened up new possibilities for the hybrid warfare. The pandemic influences every power on the global stage, but will COVID-19 be a turning point for the Euro-Atlantic Security environment?

scholarly journals West Africa: The Formation Of National Statehood

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
Zinaida N. Sokova
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
Political Modernization ◽  
Expert Assessments ◽  
Politically Active ◽  
Specific Influence

The article is devoted to the study of the dynamics of political modernization in West Africa in the first decade of independent development. The author analyses the formation of political systems, the emergence of democratic institutions, and the causes of their crisis as well as the emergence of military and civilian authoritarian regimes. The author draws on legislative acts, documents of state authorities and governing bodies, evidence of contemporaries, expert assessments and explores national mechanisms of political leadership and governance using the examples of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone. The national specifics of political systems and the characteristics of political culture exclude the possibility of highlighting the “universal” model of power relations that is valid in all countries of the region. At the same time, a comparison of these processes with similar phenomena that took place in other parts of the post-colonial world allows concluding that the development of the political space of West Africa had regionally special features. At the same time, the country approach to the topic made it possible to identify the specific influence of the state and its institutions on the life of society, as well as to form an idea of the variety of forms and methods of political rule. The significance of the scientific analysis of the formation of national statehood rests upon the incompleteness of our ideas about the ruling groups and their role in the system of public administration in West Africa. The article shows that many politically active groups of society — professional politicians, military men, officials, technocrats, and leaders of religious organizations — joined the struggle for control over state structures. Social conflicts, coupled with ethnic, regional, confessional contradictions, shook the fragile political regimes that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The Media

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin Baker
Keyword(s):  
Market Economy ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Freedom Of The Press ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
Legal Responses ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
Ruling Elites ◽  
The Media

Authoritarian regimes regularly rely on murdering journalists, jailing editors, and censoring the media to remain in power and to carry out their objectives. In 2001, thirty-seven journalists were reportedly killed in connection with their work, two-thirds apparently by governments or their supporters who did not like to take the heat of criticism. Ruling elites in market-economy democratic states primarily rely instead on owning or controlling the media or creating conditions in which the media naturally represent the world in a manner congenial to these elites' interests. This article is organized as follows. Section 1 describes debates concerning the normative premises for freedom of the press, premises that reject the censorship required by authoritarian regimes and occasionally imposed by democratic states. Section 2 describes the more pragmatic controversies centring on legal responses to the more indirect democratic threats posed by ruling elites in democratic market societies. Beyond the rejection of overt censorship, it discusses the debates over what legal treatment of the press best supports democracy while appropriately taking account of other societal needs.

African opposition success depends on alliances

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
The Political ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Support For Democracy ◽  
Democratic Norms

Significance Opposition victories, especially those that remove long-standing authoritarian regimes, have been associated with democratic strengthening, with transfers of power shown to boost public support for democracy and demonstrate that the political elite is willing to share power, bolstering democratic norms and values. Impacts Evidence of further opposition victories will encourage authoritarian leaders to deploy more intense pre-election repression. Ruling parties at risk of losing polls may try to exploit the pandemic to postpone elections, especially in more authoritarian settings. While transfers of power have often strengthened democracy, they largely disrupt rather than bring an end to political corruption networks.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document