Democratization by Elections? Postcommunist Ambiguities

Bibliographic Data

ID6288543
AuthorsValerie J Bunce, Sharon L Wolchik
Year2009
Volume20
Issue3
Pages93-107
Publication date2009-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of democracy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1045-5736 • E-ISSN: 1086-3214
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jod.0.0093
OpenAlexW2912044781
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited2

In the Balkans and the countries of the old Eastern Bloc, the years from 1996 to 2009 saw no fewer than fourteen major attempts to oust semiauthoritarian regimes by means of elections. Eight of these attempts actually toppled authoritarian leaders, bringing to power more-democratic political forces. In the remainder the opposition mounted a strong electoral challenge to dictatorial rule, but failed to secure victory. In order to tease out the relationship between elections and democratic development, we compare various political and economic aspects of the successful and unsuccessful cases. Yet where structural and institutional factors cannot fully explain why some elections brought down dictators and others did not, two variables that may prove more telling: regime vulnerability and the implementation of what we term the electoral model of democratization

Authoritarianism · Democracy · Democratization · Development economics · Economic system · Economics · Opposition (politics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Victory · Balkans: History, Politics, Society · Law · Political Conflict and Governance · Turkey's Politics and Society

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