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Are Elections Mechanisms of Authoritarian Stability or Democratization? Evidence from Postcommunist Eurasia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2013

Ruchan Kaya  and
Michael Bernhard
Ruchan Kaya
Affiliation:
University of Florida
Michael Bernhard
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Abstract

Since the end of the Cold War, political scientists have radically reexamined the role that elections play in authoritarian contexts. Some argue elections are congruent with authoritarianism and actually help to stabilize non-democratic forms of rule. Others challenge this claim by arguing that elections can function as a mechanism for democratization. We test whether elections have functioned as a mechanism of change or of neo-authoritarian stability in the postcommunist world. We generally find that elections neither promote democracy nor strengthen authoritarianism. However, we do find that in energy-rich states elections promote authoritarianism, though of a somewhat more benign sort. We also find that the mechanisms of electoral participation and competitiveness thought to promote democracy function differently in the postcommunist context and explore this in greater detail through a paired case study of electoral mobilization in Slovakia and Belarus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 11 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 734 - 752
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2013 

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