Defeating authoritarian leaders in postcommunist countries
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Defeating authoritarian leaders in postcommunist countries
(Cambridge studies in contentious politics)
Cambridge University Press, 2011
- : pbk
- : hbk
Available at 10 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
From 1998 to 2005, six elections took place in postcommunist Europe that had the surprising outcome of empowering the opposition and defeating authoritarian incumbents or their designated successors. Valerie J. Bunce and Sharon L. Wolchik compare these unexpected electoral breakthroughs. They draw three conclusions. First, the opposition was victorious because of the hard and creative work of a transnational network composed of local opposition and civil society groups, members of the international democracy assistance community and graduates of successful electoral challenges to authoritarian rule in other countries. Second, the remarkable run of these upset elections reflected the ability of this network to diffuse an ensemble of innovative electoral strategies across state boundaries. Finally, elections can serve as a powerful mechanism for democratic change. This is especially the case when civil society is strong, the transfer of political power is through constitutional means, and opposition leaders win with small mandates.
Table of Contents
- Part I. The Puzzle: 1. Breakthrough elections: mixed regimes, democracy assistance, and international diffusion
- 2. Electoral stability and change in mixed regimes
- Part II. Case Studies: 3. The 1998 election in Slovakia and the 2000 election in Croatia: model solidifies and is transferred
- 4. Defeating a dictator at the polls and in the streets: the 2000 Yugoslav election
- 5. Ukraine: the orange revolution
- 6. Georgia and Kyrgyzstan: fraudulent parliamentary elections, mass protests, and presidential abdications
- 7. Failed cases: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus
- Part III. Comparative Analyses: 8. Explaining divergent electoral outcomes: regime strength, international democracy assistance, and electoral dynamics
- 9. The electoral model: evolution and elements
- 10. The cross-national diffusion of democratizing elections
- 11. After the elections: explaining divergent regime trajectories
- 12. Conclusions: democratizing elections, international diffusion and US democracy assistance.
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