Democratic Political Regime Research Articles

How Economic, Political and Institutional Factors Influence the Choice of Exchange Rate Regimes? New Evidence from Selected Countries of the MENA Region

In this paper, we investigate how economic, political, and institutional factors affect the choice of exchange rate regimes using data on eight Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries over the 1984-2016 period. Specifically, we run random-effects ordered probit regressions of the likelihood of exchange rate regimes on the potential determinants of exchange rate regimes. Three important findings emerge from the analysis. The first finding is that political and institutional factors play an important role in determining the exchange rate regime in MENA countries, where a democratic political regime and a low level of corruption increase the probability of opting for a fixed regime, while strong governments, political stability (such as less internal conflicts and more government stability), more law and order enforcement, and a left-wing government decrease the probability of opting for a fixed regime. The second finding is that bureaucracy, independent central banks, elections, terms of trade, and monetary independence have no effect on the choice of exchange rate regimes. The third finding is that financial development is not a robust determinant of the choice of exchange rate regimes. Our results still hold when considering alternative specifications, and they have important implications for policymakers in MENA countries

ТЕОРІЯ ДЕМОКРАТИЧНОГО МИРУ ЗА УМОВ КРИЗИ ПОСТБІПОЛЯРНОЇ СИСТЕМИ МІЖНАРОДНИХ ВІДНОСИН

The article analyzes the problem of democratic peace. After World War I, Woodrow Wilson declared that the world must be made safe for democracy. It is believed that democratic countries are not at war with each other. The experience of the First World War showed that democratic leaders think in terms of honor, victory, and national pride. The people are often agitated by demagogues, so they can approve an unnecessary and unprofitable war. The authors showed that the thesis that the global spread of democracy can be a universal insurance against large-scale armed conflicts is controversial. The informational and psychological opposition of Western democrats to authoritarian regimes has become the mainstream of modern international relations. As a result of this fact, a hybrid world conflict takes place in the format of sanctions, expulsion of diplomats, special information operations. The purpose of the article is to highlight the problem of the realism of the theory of democratic peace under the conditions of the crisis of the post-bipolar system of international relations. Under a democratic political regime, power is given to an entity elected by the people, who must return it to the people after the end of their term in power. Any information about the activities of the government discredits it. Representative democracy requires that the leader's decisions are subject to careful scrutiny, that the leaders tell the truth and are ready to bear responsibility for the decisions made. Incompetence undermines the essence of representative democracy. The ailment of democratic states is the reduction of the effectiveness of governments. Attempts to implement the theory of democratic peace in practice tend to fail. The reasons for this are not only in the famous irony of history, which cancels out the titanic efforts of social engineers and directs them in the opposite direction, but also in the impossibility of spreading a uniform form of political system on a global scale. The Chinese project will restore a bipolar system in which the USA will play the role of the USSR. In the coming years, the Chinese project will collide with the American one.

Measuring the implementation of the rule of law in society and the state

The subject of the research conducted in the article is the forms of measuring the rule of law in society and in the state. The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of various forms of measuring the rule of law in society in order to identify areas for further improvement of implementing the rule of law in various aspects of public life. In the process of working on the research, various methods of scientific cognition were used, taking into account the goal, objectives of the research, its object and subject, namely: dialectical method, comparative method, structural logic method, method of system analysis. During the study a methodology for measuring the rule of law was developed, which is based on measuring the level of implementation of individual components, which together reflect the content of the rule of law. Such a comprehensive approach to the analysis of forms of measuring the rule of law is reflected for the first time in the scientific community. The article identifies the features of measuring the rule of law in Ukrainian society in view of the existing narrow conceptual reproduction of the principle of the rule of law in national law. It is concluded that one of the necessary favorable factors that is essential for the implementation of the rule of law is a democratic political regime. The possibility of measuring the rule of law in society through the prism of the overall goal to which it is aimed and through its functional purpose has been analyzed. It is established that in view of the new challenges caused by globalization and trends of deregulation, the implementation of the rule of law should be expanded. Proposals have been formulated on the need to expand the essence of the rule of law in the future as a guiding principle of organization of life so as to cover not only the relationship of the state with private entities, but also the activities of private entities whose opportunities to violate personal rights are the same as state power. The conclusions developed in the article can be used in law-making, law enforcement activities, as well as create a basis for further research in this area.

ECONOMIC GROWTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN OECD COUNTRIES: A TWENTY-YEAR STUDY OF DATA 2000–2019

The aim of the current research is to determine the factors and processes which influence economic growth and human development in relatively free societies and thereby provide a framework for policy formulation. Countries within the OECD grouping are committed to democratically elected government and market economies and fall into this category. The OECD group comprises 37 countries, including Colombia, and in 2019 accounted for 63% of real global GDP. This research focuses on the data of the thirty-seven countries over the twenty-year period of 2000-2019. Economic data is drawn from the World Bank and the IMF websites; whilst data on development indicators and income inequality is drawn from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) and WID (World Inequality database) websites. Analysis of the data in these countries provides insights into the factors and processes which influence economic growth and human development in economies with a democratic political regime. The estimated equation shows that economic growth in OECD countries was significantly higher when incoming investment as a proportion of the size of the economy and openness of the economy were higher, inflation, exchange rate changes and oil prices were lower. Smaller economies in the OECD also had higher economic growth. As the aim of a government is to increase not only the income but also the standard of living of its citizens, it is necessary also to assess the relationship between economic growth and the quality of life and wellbeing of its citizens. Five-year average cross-sectional regressions also show that economic growth in OECD countries is higher in the countries with lower HDI. This report further finds that economic growth has a bi-directional causality with changes in the human development index, and changes in life expectancy and a unidirectional causality with changes in the expected years of schooling (implying higher delivery of education) and changes in the standard of living. Another finding is that income inequality increases with economic growth; both in terms of the share of income of the top 10% and share of the lower 50%. Clearly investment in public goods, and social policies for education, skills training, healthcare and redistribution of wealth need more attention.

No country for old men: Aging dictators and economic growth

Why do some autocracies have higher economic growth rates than others? An emerging literature is highlighting that in addition to economic and institutional variables, personal characteristics of political leaders affect economic growth rates. Within this tradition, we develop a political-economic growth model of the relationship between the age of a dictator and economic growth. The model predicts that if a dictator's mortality risk increases, the economic growth rate in his country decreases. The model predictions are supported by empirical evidence based on a large sample of more than 400 dictators from 76 countries. A 1-year increase in dictator age, decreases economic growth by 0.12 percentage points. Using random leadership transitions due to natural deaths or terminal illnesses we establish that this effect is not driven by endogenous sample selection. As expected, the effect is absent in democratic political regimes.

Ancient Athenian Direct Democracy: Any Liberal Democratic Potential?

This study aims to assess the claims whether or not the direct democracy in ancient Athens can be properly regarded as a liberal democracy or had the potentials to evolve into a liberal democratic regime. For this purpose, firstly, a brief examination of liberal democracy is provided focusing on the basic tenets of liberalism; namely individualism, the limited conceptualisation of the state, negative freedom, and rights. Then, the basic principles and ideals of ancient Athenian direct democracy are briefly analysed to unveil its liberal democratic potential. The main argument raised in this study is that some essential characteristics of the Athenian version of direct democracy, viz. protecting the individual from the state interference and having several immunities to protect the negative liberties of citizens, were like liberal values and the indicators of the political regime’s liberal potential. It is also argued that it is much more persuasive to argue that ancient Athenian direct democracy had liberal democratic potentials because it facilitated the extension of core liberties than the claim that Athenian democracy could have evolved into a more liberal democratic political regime if historical conditions had been different. Methodologically, this is a qualitative study in analytic and normative political-philosophical theory.

Issues of Democratic Development and Construction of National Identity at the End of the Age of Imitations: Editorial Introduction

In the article, the guest editor Piotr Dutkiewicz and editor-in-chief Yuriy M. Pochta introduce the current issue of the journal, interpreting cross-cutting topics such as democratic development and the construction of national identity in the societies of the East and the West. They believe that the most appropriate heuristic explanation for these issues today is the idea that after the end of the Cold War the hopes for the final victory of the liberal democratic project on a global scale ended in disappointment. The end of history never took place, just like the victory of communism did not take place previously. All these years we have been witnessing an imitation of liberalism, the era of which is already over. There is currently a global revolt against the liberal imitation imperative. From this point of view, there is a great interest in articles devoted to Russian-Turkish relations, the place of the Central Asian states in the international rankings of democratic development, the evolution of the political development of the Lebanese Republic, the formation of democratic political regimes in such Eastern European EU member states as Poland and Hungary, the role of parties in the political life of Great Britain and Nigeria, as well as such theoretical and methodological problems of political science as the processes of forming future political leaders, methodology of the study of GR-management and approaches to the study of the political and psychological characteristics of the heads of Russian regions. In general, this issue of the journal pictures the current state of democratic development of Western and non-Western countries in the context of globalization, which is at the stage of transition from American monopolarity to multipolarity, from imitation of the Western liberal-democratic project to the search for its own development projects. The authors believe that from the point of view of Russia and its interests the materials of this issue allow for outlining the prospects for further research on ways to build the most effective relations with world and regional powers, the possibilities of protecting its sovereignty and its geopolitical interests, and the mechanisms for forming the Russian post-Soviet identity at the national and regional levels.

Mass media in the context of interaction between the state and civil society in the information sphere

This paper is devoted to the analysis of the role of governmental and non-governmental mass media in the functioning of public relations. The actuality of this theme is due to the problem of the formation of civil society in the new democracies. The aim of this publication is functional comparison of governmental and non-governmental mass media, and coverage of their functions in the context of interaction between the state and civil society. The methodology of this study is based on a comparative analysis of the social functionality of governmental and non-governmental media.
 The authors distinguish the main differences between governmental and non-governmental media, which are the differences between their founders, forms of ownership, sources of funding, editorial control and the implementation of social functions. They note that governmental and non-governmental media perform the same social functions, the most important of which are informational, communication, adaptation, agitation, mobilization, integration, control. However, in governmental and non-governmental media, these functions have different connotations. Governmental media operate in the information space of the country from the standpoint of the state, while non-governmental ones operate from the standpoint of civil society. Instead, the activity of governmental media is aimed at civil society, and the activity of non-governmental media is aimed at the state. The main aim of governmental media activity is to form socio-political support for authorities. The most important tasks of the non-governmental media are to bring to the attention of the authorities the problems that concern civil society, to inform the government about the needs, interests and desires of citizens. The relationship between governmental and non-governmental media is determined by the nature of the political regime. The more democratic political regimes cause the greater role of non-governmental media in regulating of public relations.
 The novelty of this work is that its authors try not to oppose the functions of governmental and non-governmental media, as was the case in previous publications on this topic, but to show the specifics implementation by them of the same functions. The practical significance of the work is due to the fact that it opens a new direction in the study of the problem of interaction of the media with the state and civil society.

Political power and fear: dialectics of interpenetration

This article is dedicated to the problem of fear as a phenomenon of political power and dominance-subordination relations. The theoretical-methodological framework for the analysis of correlation between fear and political power is comprised of the works of Russian and foreign philosophers and sociologists (O. Comte, H. Spencer, T. Parsons, N. Luhmann, E. Shils, A. S. Panarin, and other.). The author examines such phenomenon as the fear of punishment, the peculiarities of occurrence of fear in the conditions of total control over citizens under despotic and democratic political regime, in the situation of destruction of the government. Characteristic is given to the fears of politicians (personal fears, fear of losing power, fear of democracy). Based on the theoretical models along with attracted historical and statistical material, it is demonstrated that fear is an inevitable side effect of any power that tends to conservation of the existing model of relations between the government and society. The article provides a new interpretation of the idea of the supporters of psychoanalysis on channeling the fears of politicians onto the population. It is underlined that in the current conditions, it is not so much the fears of the political elite, as on converting them into a governing technique. The latter conceals the true concerns of the political elite, as well as displaces the moods of discontent and social tension, turning them into fear towards the objects developed in the information field.

Mechanisms for ensuring public order protection at the local level in conditions of decentralization of government: EU experience for Ukraine

The aim of the article is to study the experience of the emergence and development of municipal law enforcement agencies, to analyse the current state of local police in European countries. The other aim of the article is to study the development of local police, the state of legal, economic support in Ukraine, to form suggestions for the development of municipal police in Ukraine.The initiated reform of decentralization of power in Ukraine, active development of local self-government, building civil society, creation of united territorial communities, transfer of resources, powers from the central level to local levels in the framework of decentralization and local government reform have necessitated the strengthening role of local self-government. Protection of public order should go together with strengthening of a role of local governments in the spheres of medicine and education, in rendering accessible and qualitative administrative, municipal, social services. An additional condition for the formation of local law enforcement is the connection between the development of local self-government in democracies with the development of local law enforcement.Accordingly, the urgency and need to create municipal police in Ukraine, which is a democratic state, is beyond doubt, as evidenced by the active discussion of this topic, both among officials and the public.The world experience of the emergence and current state of functioning of the municipal police in European countries with democratic political regimes has been analysed in the article. Trends in the development of municipal police in European countries have been identified. The existing world models of financial support of the municipal police have been determined.Domestic approaches to the creation of municipal police have been considered. The current state of development of projects of municipal law enforcement forces, the state of adoption of the regulatory framework for the implementation of the functioning of the municipal guard has been studied. An analysis of problematic aspects of the functioning of the National Police of Ukraine, the state of corruption in Ukraine as a way for possible abuse and use of law enforcement agencies for the interests of certain classes has been made. Based on the experience of European EU member states, recommendations on the organization and definition of sources of funding for municipal law enforcement agencies have been made.

Approval of the principles of a democratic political regime in the constitutional process of modern Ukraine

The article is devoted to the establishment of the principles of a democratic political regime. The realization of the constitutional process is given by the state-building and law-making chance for the modernization of the constitutional order, which opens a perspective for the development of civil society-oriented civil society-oriented civil society. The process of democratization at the present stage is associated with a significant improvement in the system of organization and interaction of certain elements of the branches of government and the improvement of the form of government. Today, it is a recognized fact that there is a close connection between the form of government and the democratic political regime. The article maintains the idea that a democratic political regime is unthinkable outside the interaction between the state and civil society. Civil society is becoming a positive, constructive force, which can limit the state with its independence, and therefore is extremely important for the development of democracy, because it is able to limit the arbitrariness of the state and retranslate the relations to the public. Under a democratic political regime, the parameters and limits of state intervention are determined by the needs of civil society. In this context, constitutional changes should relate to changes in the constitutional system – a category that includes the basics of state and social order of Ukraine. Keywords: Ukraine, democracy, democratic political regime, constitutional process, form of government, civil society, state.

Корпоративное регулирование в плоскости политического режима: теоретико-правовой аспект

The article examines the problems of corporate regulation and political regime mutual influence, and describes the role and place of corporate regulation in the system of social and normative regulation. The corporate law structure is described as a set of corporate and legal norms from the point of view of narrow and broad approaches. Some features of corporate regulation in liberal, democratic, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes are analyzed. It is noted that a democratic political regime is characterized by a variety of corporate structures of a commercial and political nature, the predominance of the dispositive nature of the corporations’ activities legal regulation, and the admissibility of political and public corporations’ broad participation in government. The authors note that in a liberal political regime, there is a high degree of commercial corporations’ autonomy, while limiting the political and social corporations’ activities. The author reveals a variety of approaches to the manifestation of corporate regulation in authoritarian political regimes. It is described that in a totalitarian political regime, corporations actually become a part of the state mechanism, and corporate regulation is actually replaced by direct or delegated regulation of individual executive bodies. It is concluded that there is a connection between the nature of corporate regulation and the political regime of the respective state. It is established that the influence is mutual and stable and is determined both by the properties of certain types of political regimes and by the specifics of national systems of corporate regulation.

Концепция идеальной формы российского государства: проблемы и перспективы

We present the search for an optimal model of the Russian state through the prism of idealism. We doctrinally justify that the ideal form of the state is a construction that can be created theoretically and that can be approached, as it is gradually developed. In the modern sense, the ideal of state is already expressed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation – it is a democratic, legal, social state. We establish that the political and legal reform carried out in Russia has shown that the effectiveness of the country’s development depends on the importance of constitutional norms, the renewed role of the state, and the assertion and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms. We propose arguments indicating that modern Russia can be con-sidered a mixed (parliamentary-presidential) republic, an asymmetric and constitutional federation with a national-territorial character and democratic political regime. We investigate two main approaches to the definition of the ideal form of the state in modern Russia: firstly, a limited monarchy, a fed-eration with democracy elements (based on the historical and cultural fea-tures of the development of the state), and secondly, the existing and pro-claimed form of the state in the Constitution of the Russian Federation is considered, with an amendment to the challenges of the time. We conclude that the modern development of Russia, taking into account international standards, should move in the direction of the ideals already proclaimed in the Constitution of the Russian Federation with a mandatory focus on cul-tural, traditional and historical features of development.

Short Communication on the Tunisian Exchange Regime a Decade after the Revolution

Over the decade following the revolution, the IMF annual reports on exchange arrangements and exchange restrictions show that the Tunisian de facto exchange regime is not compliant with the de jure regime announced by the Tunisian authority. The latter claims a floating regime, except in 2013-2015, whereas the International Monetary Fund (IMF) states that it is a rather crawl-like regime, except in 2017. This discrepancy between the real and the official exchange regime is neither new nor specific to Tunisia. The IMF was aware of it and it has adopted a de facto classification since 1999. Nevertheless, this dichotomy is a bit surprising for Tunisia for the next reason: Tunisia has experienced a revolution that ended in early 2011 a dictatorship regime and established a democratic political regime supposed to be more accountable and more transparent. This controversy raises an important question: The exchange regime dichotomy stated by the IMF, does it really exist despite the transition toward democracy, or it is only an allegation that can be attributed to the inaccurate verification technique used by the IMF? In this context, the Tunisian de facto exchange regime over the postrevolution decade. The paper can be reduced to two main parts. The first part summarizes the theoretical explanations of the divergence between the de facto exchange regime and the de jure exchange regime. The second part consists of empirical verification of the Tunisian exchange regime by using descriptive statistics and econometric models.

Curse of Democracy: Evidence from 2020

Countries with more democratic political regimes experienced greater GDP loss and more deaths from COVID-19 in 2020. Using five different instrumental variable strategies, we find that democracy is a major cause of the wealth and health losses. This impact is global and is not driven by China and the US alone. A key channel for democracy’s negative impact is weaker and narrower containment policies at the beginning of the outbreak, not the speed of introducing policies.

Автократия в цифровой вселенной: перспективы и угрозы политической легитимации

The purpose of the article is to analyze the specific features of an autocratic regime in the modern digital environment, to determine the prospects and risks of its legitimation. The main methods were the comparative political science method and the Case Study. The Swedish model Regimes of the World was chosen as the working one. For a comparative analysis of different types of political regimes (closed, electoral autocracy, electoral and liberal democracy) forty 40 countries were selected. The analysis showed that the introduction of various technologies for digital control over citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic no longer makes it possible to clearly distinguish between autocratic and democratic political regimes. Different modes use in a pandemic a whole range of techniques that control the movement and activity of citizens: control through drones, face recognition, video surveillance, restricting access to information, surveillance through government services, control of Internet communications, control via mobile phones, disconnecting the Internet, etc. The emerging ratchet effect, when political regimes are in no hurry to remove restrictions on control over citizens, makes one think about a serious revision of the theory of democracy and the theory of autocracy.

Degree of financialization and energy efficiency in Sub-Saharan Africa: do institutions matter?

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 emphasizes the need for economies around the world to double their efforts in energy efficiency improvements. This is because improvements in energy efficiency can trigger economic growth and considered as one of the ‘green’ growth strategies due to its carbon free content. To this end, some empirical studies have investigated the nexus between economic growth and energy efficiency, but the effects of the latter on financial indicators have not been sufficiently studied in the literature, at least in developing economies like Africa. This study examines the effect of energy efficiency improvements on commercial bank profitability under different political regimes (i.e., autocratic and democratic political regimes); something previous literature had neglected. The study uses panel data, consisting of 43 African countries and the simultaneous System Generalized Method of Moments. We found that energy efficiency improvement is more likely to induce higher bank profitability in political institutions with the characteristics of centralization of power compared with those with decentralization of power. Furthermore, for the banking sector, the findings suggest that energy utilization behavior of clients should be included in the loan or credit valuation process. For the government, the agenda of energy efficiency should be aggressively pursued while taking cognizance of creating a political environment that weans itself from a ‘grandfathering’ behavior.

DEBILITAMIENTO DEL RÉGIMEN POLÍTICO DEMOCRÁTICO Y DE LOS PARTIDOS POLITICOS

The purpose of this paper is to examine the current democratic political regime taking into account the principles of national and popular sovereignty, as well as citizen participation. The role of political parties and their importance are discussed, and it is argued why they cannot be dispensed with if we conceive democracy as the best form of government, ending with some conclusions and proposals. It is intended that this work be a contribution in times where social discontent, the feeling of inequality and injustice are the obvious symptom of a population in the pursuit of further participation and a broader impact on public matters, leaving as a message that the path we must travel to go forward as societies is the enhancement of our democracy. In effect, regimes are sought to be more representative and to address issues from the rule of law and the democratic channels.

Democratic political regime in development context of online network communities

The purpose of this work is to identify the potential and limitations of online network communities to strengthen the position of the democratic political regime. The study was conducted using the example of Internet communications in the USA and France. The principles of comparative analysis and quantitative content analysis were used as a methodological basis. Additional methodological optics were elements of SWOT analysis. The analysis showed that the American and French democratic political regimes actively use online network communities to strengthen their positions in society. At the same time, it is revealed that the largest online political communities are groups of leaders, which is interpreted by the authors as a general pattern in the two studied countries – the growth of populism. The increasing role of populism is associated with the phenomenon of mediacracy – the dependence of the modern political process on media corporations and media platforms, including online ones, which establish a specific format of media journalism for political actors. The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of online communities for preserving democracy are also identified.

La falsa democracia del espacio público Geopolítica, producción discursiva y cartografías del poder en América Latina

En los últimos veinte años, el concepto de espacio público se ha vuelto dominante tanto en los discursos gubernamentales como académicos, sobre todo en regímenes políticos progresistas y democráticos de América Latina, y eso por el arbitrio ideológico y abstracto de lo público, del orden democrático y de la opinión pública moderna, lo cual ha sido determinante como marco legitimador de prácticas geopolíticas y discursos hegemónicos que determinan un statu quo que ha permitido al sistema capitalista neoliberal seguir reproduciéndose a partir de las estructuras urbanas y el desarrollo urbanístico en contextos de dominación y dependencia. En este sentido, el presente trabajo procura (des)mistificar la conformación hegemónica occidental del concepto de espacio público (como ámbito de la filosofía2 y esfera pública de deliberación política), desde la teoría crítica urbana y la teoría política feminista y cómo el mismo ha encontrado un territorio fértil de materialización discursiva y anclaje espacial de control y dominación de los países hegemónicos hacia Latinoamérica, reproduciendo un statu quo de colonización y explotación asociada a formas progresivas de politización teórica, a través de una trasnacionalización de la política, que se hace visible en los grandes proyectos de renovación urbana. Este trabajo se apoya de reflexiones teóricas, como marco analítico que permití hacer visible que el uso del concepto de espacio público no es neutral, pero está subsumido a una lógica política de legitimidad social y empoderamiento del capital hegemónico, y que ha tenido consecuencias espaciales, como una mayor segregación y fragmentación socioespacial, bajo un discurso democrático de “para todos”, inclusivo y del bien común que ha perpetuado en la reestructuración de nuevas formas de control y dominación.