Democratization Research Articles

THE TRANSCARPATHIAN REFORMED CHURCH IN THE CONDITIONS OF CRISIS AND THE CALL OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM (LATE 1960S – EARLY 1990S)

This article examines several issues of religious life in the 1960s – 1990s. The religious policy of the Soviet authorities regarding the Transcarpathian Reformed Church is highlighted. In the late 1960s, in connection with the improvement of state-church relations, the Soviet authorities eased the pressure on the church. In 1965, the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults and the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church were reorganized into a single body - the Council for the Affairs of Religions, which existed until 1991. However, the course on atheist education remained unchanged. The removal from the leadership of M. Khrushchev led to the liberalization of politics in the field of religion. The authorities have abandoned pronounced actions against the church and believers and are trying to cover up anti-religious actions by law. The authorities gradually moved from a crude and direct struggle with the church to more sophisticated methods - reducing the number of believers through anti-religious propaganda and anti-religious education. The reconstruction initiated by M. Gorbachev marked the beginning of the state's religious policy. The last third of the 1980s can be considered a turning point in relations between the state and church institutions. In fact, in a few years, the state went from implementing an anti-religious policy to promoting the development of church institutions. The general political situation in the country on the eve and in the year of independence had a positive effect on the life of the Reformed people of Transcarpathia. Contacts with Protestant, in particular, Reformed (Calvinist) religious and secular organizations in Europe were revived. The religious education of the youth was resumed, and the training of new priests became possible again. The churches confiscated by the state were returned to the communities, and the construction of new churches began on the site of damaged or destroyed ones. There were changes in the management system, from single leadership to synodal-presbyterial management.

Debate and Decide: Innovative Participatory Governance in South Australia 2010–2018

This article provides an account of how innovative participatory governance unfolded in South Australia between 2010 and 2018. In doing so it explores how an ‘interactive’ political leadership style, which scholarship argues is needed in contemporary democracy, played out in practice. Under the leadership of Premier Jay Weatherill this approach to governing, known as ‘debate and decide’, became regarded as one of the most successful examples of democratic innovation globally. Using an archival and media method of analysis the article finds evidence of the successful application of an interactive political leadership style, but one that was so woven into competitive politics that it was abandoned after a change in government in March 2018. To help sustain interactive political leadership styles the article argues for research into how a broader base of politicians perceives the benefits and risks of innovative participatory governance. It also argues for a focus on developing politicians' collaborative leadership capabilities. However, the article concludes by asking: if political competition is built into our system of government, are we be better off leveraging it, rather than resisting it, in the pursuit of democratic reform?

INFLUENCE OF THE SLOVAK FACTOR ON THE EVENTS OF AUGUST 1968 IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

The article highlights the influence of the Slovak factor on the events of August 1968 in Czechoslovakia, when the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries were introduced to the country in order to curtail the democratic reforms of the "Prague Spring". The lower chronological limit of the study is dictated by the beginning of the invasion of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20–21, 1968. The lower chronological limit of the study is dictated by the beginning of the invasion of the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries into Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20–21, 1968. The upper chronological limit of the article is determined by the completion of the work of the Congress of the Communist Party of Slovakia, which, not recognizing the results of the Extraordinary XIV Congress of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, destroyed Czechoslovak unity in the political confrontation with the Soviet Union and laid the foundations for the "normalization" regime. The research methodology in this article is based on the scientific principles of historicism, objectivity, and systematics. The author used such special-historical methods as historical-comparative, problem-chronological, historiographical analysis, etc. The article found that the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries in August 1968 stopped the process of federalization of the country. The USSR, having achieved its military goals in Czechoslovakia, suffered a political defeat because it failed to achieve the transfer of power in the country to the hands of pro-Kremlin politicians. This was evidenced by the reaction of the authorities and society to the presence of foreign troops in the Czechoslovak SSR and the results of the work of the Extraordinary General Assembly of the Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine. The author found out that in order to "normalize" the situation in the Czechoslovak SSR, during the Moscow negotiations with representatives of the Czechoslovak authorities in August 1968, the USSR used the desire of Slovaks for equality in its own interests and promised support in the issue of the future state-legal system. As a result, the "father of the federation" G. Husak, who was present at the negotiations, pragmatically changed course and became a supporter of L. Brezhnev, thus destroying the unity of the Czechoslovak authorities in their views on the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the troops of the Warsaw Pact countries and its consequences. In the interests of the USSR, G. Husak prevented Slovak communists from supporting the decisions of the Extraordinary Central Committee of the Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine at the Bratislava congress and, as the head of the party, actively participated in the "normalization" of the situation in Czechoslovakia in the fall of 1968. As a result, the process of federalization of Czechoslovakia, despite the gradual collapse of democratic reforms of the "Prague Spring", as expected, was quickly restored.

Istoriografiya politicheskoj istorii Rossii v situacii postmoderna pervoj poloviny 1990-h gg.

The article examines the specifics of the development of historiography in the first half of the 1990s on the collapse of the USSR and the formation of a new Russian statehood. In particular, the issues of studying the variability of future political development, specifically, the possibility of implementing the liberal project and democratic transition in the country, as well as the causes of the crisis state of power and society, are discussed.

Collateral Noise

Since 1951, Navarre’s Bardenas have housed a military firing range. Instituted during General Franco’s dictatorship, the US Air Force (USAF) took control of the range in 1970, transforming it into Europe’s largest combat training ground. NATO and the Spanish Air Force continue to make use of the range today. “Collateral” is the term the USAF uses to designate the noise of firing range-related jet activities. And yet, the Bardenas range has been primarily known, felt, and suffered as noise by and within populations and terrains brought forth as collateral, in part, by that very noise. This article scrutinizes the “collateral” and the “noise” as a way to trace a relational history, accounting for USAF noise’s excesses and its embodied experience in the Bardenas during the last years of Francoism and the democratic transition, and for Bardenas noise as implicated in and forwarding larger militarized ecologies. It proposes to understand collateral noise as a materialization of and a means for militarized imperialisms’ prevarications with the sensory realm, territories, and knowledge. And it argues that collateral noise is one of the ways in which “imperial formations” become audible and do so, specifically, in the seizure of acoustic extraterritorialities and that it is at the same time a way in which these seek to secrete themselves.

Recenzie - ANDRAS BOZOKI Rolling Transition and the Role of Intellectuals. The Case of Hungary, 1977-1994 (Budapest-Vienna-New York: Central European University Press, 2022), 620 pp.

Transition to democracy in Eastern and Central Europe occurred as a consequence of the way communist regimes dismantled. Not as a momentum, but rather as a continuous overlapping series of phenomena, events around 1989 happened because of the actors, especially the intellectuals, that created them. This is the main thesis of András Bozóki’s book published in 2022, Rolling Transition and the Role of Intellectuals. The Case of Hungary, 1977-1994. This work fills the gap in a literature that focuses mainly on the democratic transition in Eastern and Central Europe as a unitary space or on the Ruling Elites in a newly capitalist system.1 More recently, political writings on Hungary discuss the democratic backsliding and the illiberal turns of the regime, including it in a regional framework affected by populism, and Euroscepticism.

Desencanto in the Spanish Transition (1977–1982)

Abstract This article analyzes how the concept of desencanto (disenchantment) was framed within the political discourse of the Spanish democratic transition as a way of delegitimizing radical political actors and normalizing the realpolitik of elite consensus. Through an analysis of the ubiquitous mainstream press usage of the term between 1977 and 1982, I argue that the combination of emotional and temporal meanings assigned to the concept worked to reinforce the moderation exhibited by government positions. Desencanto represented the disappointment or sadness felt by those hoping for a revolutionary rupture with Franco's dictatorship, which was associated to nostalgia or pathological relationships of the past. With the “revolution,” or “utopia” of the past, critics made clear that the radical Left was nostalgic or unrealistic for political projects that did not belong in a modern democracy, exclusively understood from the single and present-oriented politics of moderation and the possible.

Racism and the Rollback of Tunisian Democracy

Tunisia was the last surviving democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring, and had recently enacted legislation to combat racial discrimination. But President Kais Saied, since coming to power in a 2019 election, has returned the country to authoritarian rule. He has also rolled back progress on race relations, scapegoating sub-Saharan African migrants for Tunisia’s economic troubles. The failure of previous governments to root out corruption and consolidate the democratic transition with a new socioeconomic pact opened the way for a return to dictatorship.

From Authoritarianism to Democracy in Poland Catholic church, the Union Movement Solidarity and the History of Democratic Change

The paper examines the complex process of transition from a non-democratic to a democratic regime and the consolidation of the government system in Poland. The specificity of the democratic transition in Poland, in relation to other transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, is reflected in the nature of the non-democratic regime, which was more authoritarian than (post)totalitarian. Hence, while the communist regime was in force, social pluralism managed to be preserved to the highest possible extent. Preserved social and even political pluralism later contributed to success in the transition process. The military-party regime in Poland, after Gorbachev came to power in the USSR, applied the strategy of getting out that took the form of negotiations between the political position and the political opposition at the Round Table. The compromise ended the negotiations and brought about semi-free elections, on one, and the controlled democratic transition in Poland, on the other hand. The event was accelerated when, in semi-free elections, the popular Solidarity movement defeated the then-ruling communist group. The provisions of the Agreement were fully respected by both sides. In the end, after the Second World War, it was Poland whose citizens were the first to overthrow at the regular elections. The Round Table Agreement established the function of a strong president, who was directly elected. That function was first used by Leh Valensa, the leader of Solidarity. The extreme proportional election method and the fragmentation of Solidarity, in terms of the creation of several political parties, resulted in the establishment of a multi-party semi-presidential system. The change in the electoral system and the inappropriate tactics of the political parties that emerged from Solidarity enabled the left-wing government to come to power and ensured the post of president to a post-communist candidate (Darmanovi?, 2002). The transfer of power from Solidarity to their former rivals, who fundamentally changed, managed to end peacefully and Poland slowly entered the phase of consolidation of the government system.

Lost Opportunity: Local Councils and Grassroots Democracy Reforms after the Anti-Extradition Movement in Hong Kong

Research on contentious politics tends to overlook the significance of local elections in supporting social movements and democratisation. This article analyses how the pro-democracy opposition in Hong Kong had tried to use the institutional positions and resources of the District Councils, after their landslide victory in 2019, to support the Anti-Extradition Movement and push for grassroots democracy reforms. Through a study of meeting documents and interviews with councillors, this study recapitulates the state–opposition struggle around the grassroots reform initiatives in the District Councils in 2020–2021. Efforts to support the Anti-Extradition Movement, promote grassroots participation, reform public finance, and counter clientelism were short-lived and met with strong state resistance. Institutional constraints, internal struggles, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic severely limited the reform efforts. The study of this reform experience sheds light on the possibilities and limits of using local councils to support reforms and promote grassroots democracy in hybrid regime settings.

The Perils of Parliamentarism in Contrast to Presidentialism in Democratic Transition

The paper raised some doubts on a few academic literatures arguments that Parliamentarism is better than Presidentialism for new democracies in the transitional period. It instead found that parliamentarism could also lead to critical perils to democratic transition, at least in some particular political situations, like increasing the instability of the government, encouraging political speculation and polarization, and allowing ruling parties to self-benefit from the manipulated electoral system. Instead, presidentialism could be conducive to addressing these perils of parliamentarism and enable a more robust, stable, and successful transition from authoritarianism to democracy for many countries. This paper took examples of presidentialism in Philippine and Taiwan. Compared with presidentialism, parliamentarism has several key weaknesses. They include government instability under minority rule, polarization in countries with enormous social cleavages, encouraging politicians to pursue political speculation and defect their electorates, and the likelihood of electoral system maneuver by ruling parties. Thus, for new democracies, presidentialism may perform better than parliamentarism, at least on some occasions.

‘Rage into action’: from carbon democracy to climate democracy?

ABSTRACT Overcoming fossil fuel dependence entails overcoming the constraints of ‘carbon democracy’. Transition to decarbonized society poses a profound democratic question, of whether the fossil fuel sector has the right to determine the planet’s climate future. With this, energy transitions to address climate change are transformed into much deeper democratic transitions. This is already in evidence, as new claims are generated, for ‘climate justice’, ‘energy democracy’, ‘new green deals’, ‘de-growth’, and more. The imperatives for transition, and the in-built barriers to it, pose real questions for how society and politics are understood. How far does climate transition force new models of ‘climate democracy’ onto the table? Theory-policy linkages and concrete case studies are needed to explore the dynamics of democracy under transition, and to understand shared barriers and alternatives. This introductory article draws out perspectives on these themes in the Special Issue, ‘From Carbon Democracy to Climate Democracy’.

In the line of duty: Militarising African epidemics

AbstractThe deployment of soldiers for epidemic control in Africa has become more acceptable, even when human rights violations occur. This article outlines how this situation has arisen, foregrounding overlapping processes since the 1990s and the implications of Security Council Resolution 2177. It then explores effects with reference to Sierra Leone and Uganda. Drawing on long‐term fieldwork, it discusses militarised epidemic control programmes during Ebola and COVID‐19 outbreaks. It points out similarities in the responses to epidemics in these two countries, including the violent enforcement of regulations, but also striking differences. In Sierra Leone, a democratic transition of governmental power occurred, whereas militarised epidemic control in Uganda helped entrench autocratic public authority. To the extent that there is data available, disease control outcomes in the two countries were not widely divergent, yet the Ugandan response has been valorised. This highlights a drift towards less accountable forms of governance, justified by purported public health objectives.

The Compatibility of the International Humanitarian Law on International Peace Forces

The United Nations has resorted to developing a mechanism to stop armed conflicts and reach a peaceful settlement to them. They are the International Peace Forces in order to try to settle armed conflicts. The aim was to allow the conflicting parties to reach a peaceful solution, and the International Peace Forces (IPF) evolved in terms of their composition or in terms of the tasks they perform. In addition to the first task they undertook, namely the separation of the conflicting forces and the maintenance of the truce, they carry out the tasks of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of combatants into their communities, strengthening the rule of law, enabling the local authority to strengthen its presence and fulfill its responsibilities besides securing elections with the aim to ensure a democratic transition of power, as well as ensuring respect for human rights and protecting civilians in the conflicting zones, carrying out humanitarian work including securing safe passages with the arrival of aid, securing refugees and expelled people. These forces witnessed a great development in terms of the mandates they carry out from peacekeeping to the tasks of peace enforcement; therefore, they carry out combat operations for peace enforcement, which in turn raised the question about the degree of the compatibility between the rules of international humanitarian laws and International Peace Forces. Such a question incited the researcher to answer it through inducing and analyzing significant texts, and he reached to a number of results, among of which is : International Peace Forces uses the armed forces in some of their tasks as being a part of armed conflict in the tasks of carrying out peace, and in turn, The United Nations must adopt decisions that frankly state that International Peace Forces should be compatible with the rules of humanitarian law.

From “Unification” To “Independence”: The Change of Taiwan’s Authorities’ Positioning on Cross-Strait Relations under The Rise of Emerging Middle Class

After the Chinese Civil War, Taiwan went through a process of profound structural change in its economy towards industrialization, which was most characterized by the growing power of the middle class under an industrialized society, a power that in turn acted on Taiwanese society and pushed forward the process of democratization in Taiwan. Contrary to the booming economy of Taiwan, the international status of the region has been in tatters. After the Restoration of the lawful rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations, the Taiwan authorities have completely lost the international recognition of representing the whole of China, and the legitimacy of the martial law rule based on this has been gradually eroded. With the authoritarian rule in danger, the society of Taiwan is in urgent need of reforms. The emergence of a large and self-centered middle class became an important stimulus for Taiwan's democratic transition, and the 1980s saw the rise of social movements in Taiwan, with the idea of "Taiwan's independence" being raised more and more frequently in the course of exchanges with the Kuomintang (KMT) authorities. This paper will use stimulus-response theory to examine how the stimulus of the rise of the emerging middle class has affected the evolution of the Taiwan authorities' positioning of cross-strait relations from "unification" to "independence", and finally draw the conclusions of this paper.

Lessons from a Late Adopter: Feminist Advocacy, Democratizing Reforms, and Gender Quotas in Chile

Many Latin American and other Global South countries adopted gender quotas during democratic transitions. What explains late-adopting cases like Chile? We analyze two instances: the 2015–2016 electoral reforms, which finally introduced a 40-percent gender quota, and the 2020–2023 constitutional process, which introduced gender parity. Using a qualitative analysis that draws on 39 elite interviews, we posit that efforts to redesign national political institutions in order to address democratic deficits create transition-like moments. In turn, these moments create windows of opportunity for quota advocates. We show how quota advocates in the parties, congress, and civil society leveraged growing voter discontent to pressure their resistant colleagues and ultimately secure gender quotas (and later gender parity) as part of larger reform efforts. Our analysis of the Chilean case elevates two factors explaining quota adoption: the long arc of democratization and women's role as protagonists in electoral reforms.

The Best Chance for Democratic Success: The Role of Well-Organized Actors and External Support

Abstract Popular Politics and the Path to Durable Democracy makes a compelling case for the importance of well-organized and lengthy popular mobilization movements in contributing to lasting democracy. Through a mixed-methods approach, Mohammad Ali Kadivar draws a correlation between length of a mobilization and electoral democracy. However, his analysis is incomplete, and he fails to account for several important factors, most particularly the role of external actors in supporting (or harming) a democratic transition. And he fails to explain the large variance in his findings—why some of the most well-consolidated democracies lasting a half a century also have some of the shortest periods of mobilization, while some of the most repressive countries had lengthy mobilization periods leading up to their failed transitions.

Twice Invisible, Twice Clandestine. Football and Lesbianism in Spain During the Years of Democratic Transition (1970–1982)

The main objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between women’s football and lesbianism during the 1970s in Spain as well as the invisibility characteristics of this group of women in the context of the invisibility of women’s football in this period and in the context of the political transition until 1982. In the repressive context of late Francoism and given the validity until 1978 of laws that expressly persecuted homosexuality, social, cultural, legal, and political pressure had a very important impact on lesbian women who participated in the incipient practice of football in Spain in the 1970s. Some of these players built gay social networks through sports clubs and later started clandestine meetings in bars and private celebrations. The period studied—between 1970 and 1982—coincided with the rebirth of women’s football in Spain and the international emergence of this sport. The research has been based on the use of in-depth interview as a method and historiographical technique that has allowed us to obtain the life stories of nine lesbian or heterosexual women football players in different Spanish cities (who in general have lived and live in a private sexual identity) and two coaches linked to women’s teams. These sources have been expanded and contrasted from others of a documentary nature (specialized press and bibliography) to reconstruct the context studied and contrast the reliability of the information collected. In conclusion, it has been established that, despite the low visibility of women’s football and homosexuality, the legal pressure of the period and the opposition of the public authorities and institutions of the dictatorship, the field of football allowed these women to overcome some of the difficulties in the process of building their identity and discrimination based on sexual orientation. In turn, support networks—especially of teammates—private parties and atmosphere bars, were fundamental to the life experience of young lesbian athletes in the still repressive context of the end of the Franco dictatorship and the first years of the young democratic regime in Spain.

A systematic literature review on civic engagement program through citizenship education

Essentially, project-based learning, currently referred to as a method for citizenship education in higher education, is rooted in the concept of civic engagement, which is the most critical determinant of success in transitioning to adult citizenship. Given the limited involvement of the younger generation in public life, which often remains tokenistic and lacks significant impact on change. With their current capacity, young citizens are considered insufficiently equipped to address the challenges of Indonesia's democratic transition, including the dissemination of disinformation and diminishing political efficacy. Giving precedence to civic engagement programs in citizenship education becomes imperative to fortify democracy. Thus, the refinement of concepts and instructional methodologies for citizenship education requires a comprehensive review of scholarly articles. This research attempts to bridge the gap in systematic literature reviews on this subject, which have not thoroughly examined articles addressing civic engagement programming in terms of concepts and methods. The study employs a systematic literature review methodology, using articles published in Scopus-indexed journals over the past decade as primary sources. This systematic literature review effectively underscores the extensive progress in the concepts and methodologies of civic engagement programs within citizenship education, signaling a promising trajectory in this field. Furthermore, the review identifies pivotal areas for future research, including the fine-tuning of assessment models for experiential-based instruction and a critical reevaluation of the role of civics education in heightening citizens' political consciousness.

Myanmar's Rejection Of The United Nations Resolution: Allowed of Not?

Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the Myanmar Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls for an arms embargo and power struggle by the military in a UN general assembly resolution last February because the resolution was considered based on unilateral accusations and false assumptions, and the resolution was deemed not legally binding. In addition, several Myanmar statements have been adopted by the UN security council, which has the authority as well as resolutions deemed legally binding, such as the prohibition of acts of violence against protesters. In addition, the resolution calls on the military not to commit acts of violence as well as restore the democratic transition. The purpose of this study is to find out whether Myanmar may reject the UN General Assembly resolution or not. The study uses normative legal research with a case approach using qualitative descriptive methods to describe the legal reasons used in Myanmar's rejection of the UN General Assembly resolution and how to apply the principle of pacta sunt servanda in this case. The results show that Myanmar rejects the UN resolution calling for an arms embargo because Myanmar considers that the resolution is not legally binding and based on the pacta sunt servanda. Myanmar should accept the UN General Assembly resolution because it binds an agreement to the parties who made it.