Economic Autonomy and Democracy: Hybrid Regimes in Russia and Kyrgyzstan

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Economic Autonomy and Democracy: Hybrid Regimes in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. By Kelly M. McMann. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 259p. $75.00.

Kelly M. McMann's work is a welcome addition to the burgeoning literature on democracy and democratization with the discussion of a new form of government, namely the hybrid regime. McMann uses a multidimensional approach to understand a complex and conceptually messy issue: democratic participation. Like other scholars, she uses this hybrid regime framework, which has been described as containing both democratic and authoritarian elements (e.g., see Larry J. Diamond, “Thinking about Hybrid Regimes,” Journal of Democracy 13 [April 2002]: 21–35). Her work is a significant contribution to the understanding of how formerly transitional governments currently operate in relation to citizens and citizen political participation. Utilizing the hybrid regime concept illustrates the true nature of such regimes to the same degree that the terms “electoral,” “minimal,” “illiberal” democracies and “transitional” regimes obfuscate it. Perhaps regimes such as those in Russia and Kyrgyzstan have completed their transitions—to some combination of democratic and authoritarian elements, rather than to liberal democracy.