Imperfect Democracy Research Articles

From Liberal Democracy to Illiberal Populist Autocracy: Possible Reasons for Hungary’s Autocratization

The paper looks for the main reasons of how was the Hungarian government of the Fidesz Party lead by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán able to within 13 years undermine the independent checks on their power so that it could convert what had looked like a stable but imperfect democracy into an autocracy? After listing the most obvious reasons the paper looks particularly at, how much is the way of a mostly elite-driven democratic transition using the tools of ‚legal constitutionalism‘and ‚undemocratic liberalism‘without real historical traditions of a liberal democratic constitutional culture and with the regionally determined value system is to blame. This also leads to the question, how to allocate the responsibility for the backsliding between the elites and the citizens, influenced and often manipulated by the leaders.

The impact of political parties on foreign direct investment within Mexico

Today we can identify a variety of political and economic systems in the world. A free market economic system is more likely to work if it is based on a democratic political system. According to the Democracy Index 2021, Mexico went from being an imperfect democracy to a hybrid regime, with the risk of becoming an authoritarian regime. The transition from a political system of imperfect democracy to a hybrid regime represents a great risk for domestic and foreign private investment. There is a latent political risk for investors in this type of countries, which scares away foreign direct investment. This research presents an analysis of the behavior of foreign direct investment in Mexico from 2000 to 2021 by state and political party. The results from a point biserial correlation test prove the existence of a dependence between the attraction of foreign investment and the political party in government. Mexico attracted lower capital inflows since the presence of MORENA, actual political party that is in both, the federal and some state governments. Descriptive statistics show that in most of the matches there is a dependence and also a correlation, however it is prudent to study the direction of this relationship and the strength. The findings are based on an analysis of three years of government of the MORENA political party; therefore, a longer period could be considered for future research.

Handling the organizing paradox: A multiple case study of German cooperatives

Cooperatives are seen as the bedrock of democratic control and an alternative to capitalist enterprises but also as sites of ‘degeneration’ of democratic values and hopes. In this article, the authors conceptualize that cooperatives are a prime example of a paradoxical organization, which must deal with the organizing paradox of democracy and hierarchy. Based on a multiple case study of 14 cooperatives in Germany, the authors unfold four different ways of handling this organizing paradox, ranging from upholding a grassroots democracy to seemingly uncontested forms of autocracy. Their typology demonstrates that participatory practices are not determined by the size of the cooperative or the sector in which it operates. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of participation and democracy as sensemaking devices, which fosters reflections on the organizing paradox and its handling and subsequently on the promises and pitfalls of cooperatives as ‘imperfect democracy’.

Legitimisation of political regime in post-communist countries: Ways, methods, efficiency

The research relevance is determined by the fact that many post-communist countries have faced and continue to face problems in building a sustainable democratic system that would fully meet the needs of society. The research aims to analyse the ways and methods by which political regimes in post-communist countries were legitimised and to determine their effectiveness. To achieve the research objective, the methods of hermeneutics, deduction, analysis, and synthesis were used. The study found that the methods, ways and effectiveness of legitimisation of political regimes in Ukraine and Kazakhstan differ from each other, although they began their development at the same time (1991) and on the same basis (the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). Poland, after the overthrow of the communist regime in 1989, embarked on the path of developing democratic institutions and civic engagement. In Ukraine, the way to legitimise the political regime was through democratic elections and transparency, and in Kazakhstan ̶ through economic development and propaganda. The effectiveness of the methods within the chosen paths resulted in the following democracy indices for the countries: Ukraine ̶ 5.42 (hybrid regime), Poland ̶ 7.04 (imperfect democracy), Kazakhstan ̶ 3.08 (authoritarian regime). In other words, all three countries are at different levels of development, depending on the analysed issues, with Poland being the best positioned. Therefore, it can be concluded that countries need to improve the legitimation of the political regime on the way to full democracy. The practical significance of this study is that the findings of the study are useful for policymakers, researchers and the public interested in the processes of democracy and legitimisation in the post-communist context

AMALAN PENDEMOKRASIAN PENDIDIKAN DALAM PENGELOLAAN SEKOLAH AGAMA ISLAM DAN SEKOLAH CINA DI MALAYSIA

The existence of Islamic Religious Schools (IRS) and Chinese Schools (CS) preceeded the history of the formation of the country and developed along with the various educational policies implemented by the government until it successfully dignified its position in the current of national education. However, the managers in both types of schools were found to be in conflict with the government in fighting for their educational rights. The conflict between school managers and the government is about maintaining the main goal of school establishment or the school’s traditional curriculum, namely the Diniah curriculum (IRS) and the Chinese language and culture curriculum (CS). In addition, school managers also experience conflicts of overlapping management powers between the School Management Board (SMB) and the government, the ambiguity of education rights based on national legislation and a lack of justice from the aspect of government financial aid distribution. This study aims to examine the practice of democratization of education that exists in the management of both types of schools. In this qualitative study, data was collected through semi-structured interviews with two managers from IRS and two CS managers in Malaysia. The findings of the study show that the government is seen to be practicing imperfect democracy in fulfilling the four aspects of both types of schools’ educational rights, namely the main goal of establishing schools, management authority, legislation and the distribution of financial aid. This government’s practice shows the spirit of democratization of education that prioritizes the direction of the national education policy to meet the country’s aspirations in facing the needs of the 21th century.

Populist orientations in Ukrainian society: origins and characteristics of reproduction

Populist orientations refer to a set of political beliefs and values that emphasize the interests of «ordinary people» with a corresponding need to challenge the political establishment. In Ukraine, long social transformations in the post-communist period led to total mistrust and a negative attitude toward state institutions. The post-communist irremovability of the political establishment led to persistent anti-elitist attitudes. As a result of the inconsistency and contradictions of Ukraine's path to democracy, a basic «transitional type» of personality has emerged. It is characterized by psychological ambivalence, that is a double contradictory attitude to the prospects of society's development. The connection of ambivalent consciousness with populist orientations often arises because both phenomena are based on the absence of a stable ideological orientation or a clear political identity. The ambivalent consciousness and unbelief in the pluralist mechanisms of an imperfect democracy have fuelled the population's attachment authoritarian methods in politics, which is a reflection of the hopes for effective governance. However, the existence of polarization in Ukrainian society based on geopolitical orientations and social identities for a long time conditioned citizens to rely on traditional political forces in their electoral behavior. Only after the disappearance of this polarization did populist orientations materialize into the electoral phenomenon of 2019. In the course of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, a radical reassessment of the state and state institutions by the population took place, and therefore the antagonism between the population and the elite became temporarily irrelevant. However, post-war reconstruction carries with it the risks of a revival and growth of populist orientations, as economic difficulties will exacerbate intolerant of social injustice.

Hybrid Political Regime: The Fall of Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico

Today we can identify a variety of political and economic systems in the world. A free market economic system is more likely to work if it is based on a democratic political system. According to the Democracy Index 2021, Mexico went from being an imperfect democracy to a hybrid regime, with the risk of becoming an authoritarian regime. The transition from a political system of imperfect democracy to a hybrid regime represents a great risk for domestic and foreign private investment. There is a latent political risk for investors in this type of country, which scares away foreign direct investment. This research presents an analysis of the behavior of foreign direct investment in Mexico from 2000 to 2021 by state and political party. A point biserial correlation test is performed to prove the existence of a dependencie between the attraction of foreign investment and the political party in government. Lower capital inflows in Mexico is observed since the presence of MORENA, actual political party that is in both, the federal and some state governments. Descriptive statistics show that in most of the matches there is a dependence and also a correlation, however it is prudent to study the direction of this relationship and the strength. The findings are based on an analysis of three years of government of the MORENA political party; therefore, a longer period could be considered for future research.

POLITICAL REGIME AS A SYMPTOM OF ECONOMIC CRIME AND THE PROBLEM OF ENSURING ECONOMIC SECURITY OF THE STATE

The democratic regime of the state acts as a guarantor of economic security, but authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes are a problem on the way to the formation of a perfect index of democracy. In this article, a study was conducted to determine the quantitative reflection of the state of democracy on the example of 167 different countries of the European Union, as well as an analysis of this index in Ukraine. According to the methodology for assessing the level of democracy, the following political regimes should be distinguished: full democracy, imperfect democracy, countries with a transitional (hybrid) regime, and an authoritarian regime. The result of the study of the democracy index of the countries of the European Union is that a significant minority of countries have a regime of full-fledged democracy, while the majority of countries have an incomplete democracy. Analyzing the situation in Ukraine, it is worth noting that the democracy index is quite unstable, because the methods of governance change radically with the change of the head of state. The purpose of this article is to inform about the situation with the democratic regime in European countries and in Ukraine, namely the democracy index, which is a factor in guaranteeing economic security. This article draws attention to the factors of creating a democratic space that affect the development of economic relations and the state of economic security of countries, which is relevant. The obtained results reveal the question of the tendency to decrease or increase the index of democracy, as well as the reasons for this movement. The practical value is determined in the results of the study, which can be used to analyze the consequences of the decline, or on the contrary, the increase, of the indicators of the democracy index, how the influence of the political regime occurs, and what changes in society and the life of the state it entails. According to the conclusions drawn from the research on the example of the countries of the European Union and Ukraine, it is also possible to create and implement new methods of improving the democracy index, moving to a higher level (from an authoritarian regime to full democracy), which will ensure a decrease in the manifestation of economic crime and problems of guaranteeing economic state security.

On the Evolution of Republican Democracy

The paper is devoted to the process of penetration of democratic ideas and principles of state building in Europe, that is considered using examples from the past. Various forms of democracy are presented in the composition of the aristocratic, bourgeois estates, as well as all citizens, and the stability of such democracies is considered. The reasons for the emergence of democracies, as well as the mechanisms of their destruction are discussed. Also, the paper discusses the principles of the state structure of modern developed democracies and countries of the developing world - imperfect democracies, where republican institutions to a greater extent imitate their democratic counterparts. Based on statistical data, assumptions about the nature of changes in the social structure of such states in the direction of their greater democratization are presented. To analyze the trends in the social development of countries, a fifteen-year period of crisis-free development of the world economy at the beginning of the 21st century was chosen. It is noted that in a number of imperfect democracies two economies are being formed, a modern one, where the owners of assets are oligarchs, and an archaic one, where the bulk of the poor are employed. In the final part of the work the nature of the destruction of oligarchic rule is considered. In particular, these are the processes of expansion of the modern innovative economy into marginal geographical areas and industries of countries. The growth in the capitalization of assets, the increase in the number and wealth of their owners and top managers leads to increased competition and to the suppression of the influence of individual oligarchic clans. New groups of the low-income population are being drawn into production. The number and wealth of the middle class is growing. Increases his ability to participate in political life. We can talk about the tendencies of strengthening democracy and development of republican institutions in many countries of the world. Particular attention is paid to the conditions for the transition of oligarchic imperfect democracies to authoritarian regimes.

ILLIBERALISM: WHAT LIES BEHIND THE MODERN POLITICAL PHENOMENON?

The article attempts to analyze a new political phenomenon that makes itself felt in connection with the failed «global democratic wave», which was predicted by many analysts in the late 1980s - 90s. On the contrary, at the beginning of the XXI century, illiberal states (China, Russia), challenging the world hegemony of the United States, entered the world stage. The crisis of political liberalism has become an indisputable fact. In post-Soviet countries, instead of democratic transition, there is a transition from imperfect democracy to authoritarianism. Illiberal constitutionalism is evident in Hungary and Poland. In connection with the above, analysts are trying to conceptualize a new political phenomenon, which has been called Illiberalism (non-liberalism). The article contains an analysis of the concept of Illiberalism, its correlation with traditional ideological, political and institutional phenomena. After conducting a comparative analysis of ideologies and political regimes, the author comes to conclusion that the ideological, political and economic constructs known within the European and Eurasian space are of European origin. In order to claim identity and universalism, Illiberalism must demonstrate the basic typological features inherent only to it. So far, we see an eclectic set of marginal European ideas and concepts cynically used by the ruling elites for political or mercenary purposes.

COVID-19 in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract Issue Countries of central and eastern Europe (CEE) are rarely accustomed to praise when compared to their western European neighbors. During the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, as core European countries such as Italy, Spain, or the United Kingdom reported hundreds of confirmed cases and even deaths per day, all CEE countries managed to contain the disease with considerably lower rates of infection and deaths. Description This changed in late summer and fall of 2020, when many CEE countries overtook western Europe in the number of new COVID-19 cases, as well as deaths, per population, but for a few months the region could enjoy its unusual accomplishment. A number of hypotheses have been suggested to explain the surprising containment success in the spring, including the widespread prevalence of the bacille Calmette-Guérin tuberculosis vaccine, lower population density and exposure to tourism, lack of trust in the healthcare system and government in general, low testing numbers (which may have led to underreporting of cases), and an autocratic advantage leaders of imperfect democracies, such as in CEE, enjoy when imposing lockdowns and other restrictive policies. Results In the spring, CEE governments implemented strict measures to protect public health at a time when their countries had few COVID-19 cases and deaths at most in the single digits. Lessons The Russian approach to addressing COVID-19 reflects the messiness of classifying “regime type.” Some of the responses used were more authoritarian in their approach. A greater flow of information and more transparency in the data would allow a more complete assessment of Russia's response to COVID-19. Main messages Creating a “virus of silence,” short- cutting global standards for vaccine clinical trials, and not providing disaggregated and timely data make it difficult to evaluate the reasons for Russia's relatively low case count and low fatality rate.

International actors as critics of domestic freedoms: the role of expertise and benefits

ABSTRACT When outside actors criticize domestic rights and freedoms, do voters take notice? We argue that messages coming from outsiders who condition resources on democracy, and who have expertise in democracy promotion, are more likely to change minds. We also argue that partisanship is a moderating variable when it comes to the impact of outside messages: partisan elites help amplify or lessen the impact of outside messages. We offer evidence from a series of survey-experiments we deployed in Turkey, focusing on the roles of the European Union and of the European Court of Human Rights as sources criticism of domestic freedoms. We show that emphasizing expertise and conditional benefits can cause more belief updating. We also show that pro-government voters are likely to change their minds but that opposition supporters may do so as well. Non-partisan voters show some evidence of backlash, possibly because they are disengaged and alienated from elites. The argument has implications for the ability of outside actors to influence domestic-level processes related to democracy in countries in imperfect democracies and in countries sliding towards authoritarianism.

Sustainable Development of Agricultural Sector: Democratic Profile Impact Among Developing Countries

The bullet point of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 is improving of countries food security through decreasing of hungry level and providing equal conditions for food to everyone. Besides, according to the findings the issues with hungry index could be solved through developing the agricultural sector corresponding of SDGs principals. The findings showed that the agricultural sector is start point of decreasing the hungry. The authors proved the type of the political regime had impact on the efficiency of achieving of SDGs and countries’ food security. The hypothesis of investigation was checking the relationship between political profile of the countries and level of sustainable development of the agricultural sector (ASI). The assessment of the relationship between average level of ASI and countries' democratic profile (democracy level of public relations) for 28 countries of Post-Soviet bloc proved the non-existence of differences between countries with authoritarian and transitional regimes opposed to other political regimes (imperfect and full democracy). The authors allocated three segments of countries: authoritarian and transitional regimes, imperfect democracy and full-fledged democracy. The findings proved the hypothesis that democracy level had a statistically significant impact on the average level of ASI. Using the bivariate and multivariate models the authors empirically proved that the democracy level increase by 1-point leads to the increase of the target index by 0.087 points for countries with authoritarian and transitional regimes (to which Ukraine belongs). Thus, the transition to a more democratic model of the political regime will partially offset the threats to food security.

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF DEEPENING EU-UKRAINIAN RELATIONS

Three countries: Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine have concluded European Union Association Agreements, under similar terms and conditions of European Partnership. Analytical review allowed determining that in their political integrative development, they have similar problems and ways to overcome them. They are distinguished by a relatively high level of democratic freedoms and political pluralism; however, none of them can be considered as a consolidated democracy, these countries have hybrid political regimes. Among the main obstacles occurring on the way of their integration processes, one can distinguish problems associated with ethical, regional, and cultural conflicts; specific features of the formation of constitutional systems; features of the formation of PR technologies of government and society; deep-rooted corruption and influence of oligarchs in party systems and, as a consequence, propensity to use non-constitutional means of political struggle and economic development. Despite these structural problems, favouring European values and norms demonstrated by societies of the three countries holds the promise of consolidating democratic institutions and overcoming problems. The purpose of the article is to determine problems and prospects of deepening relations of the EU with three countries: Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia, and to substantiate theses stating that consistent and reinforced integration of the European Union in this region is crucial for further success and development of all actors of this process. Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine do not compose a single region (both in a geographical and economic context); however, since 2014 they are developing according to the same scenarios. Their aspiration to integration has provoked problems in relations with Russia and intensified opposition to the policy of Europeanisation within the countries. In Ukraine, the most difficult and severe events took place: it passed through government overthrow, loss of territory, and military actions in Donbas caused by Russia, which continue to this day. For Moldova and Georgia, the choice of democratic imperatives also had grave consequences. In Georgia, they were identified as two long-term wars for the separation in Abkhazia and South Ossetia; ended with the defeat of central authorities and creation of two unrecognized states. Moldova has faced a similar problem in Transnistria in 1992. In all countries, Russian armed forces were important actors who played an important role in determining the results of these conflicts. According to the Democracy Index, Moldova is evaluated as “imperfect democracy”; Georgia – as “hybrid regime”; Ukraine has moved below, from the category of “imperfect democracy” to the lowest “hybrid regime”. Over the political pressure of Russia, the EU and Ukraine postpone the provisional application of the DCFTA (Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area) to January 1, 2019. There are marked positive consequences of Ukrainian export to the EU, which volume has increased by 30% in 2017. The structure of exports to the EU has shifted towards machines and equipment, fats and oils of vegetable or animal origin, ready-made meals, and products of animal origin. The EU share in Ukrainian exports and imports has also increased due to a significant reduction in trade with Russia. The application of the EU tariff quotas for agricultural production has increased over the 2014–2017 years because Ukrainian producers have gradually overcome the problems with food safety and weak demand for their production. European choice is an extremely important factor for continuous democratization of all these three countries. In spite of competition among European and Eurasian identities, each of them considers itself a European country. The choice to continue the path of association with Europe, made by these countries, despite obvious political risks (especially severe for Ukraine), is the best evidence of their real adherence to European development path.

Mill’s closet: J.S. Mill on solitude and the imperfect democracy

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the role solitude played in John Stuart Mill’s political thought. By doing so, it challenges contemporary appropriations of Mill’s thought by participatory, deliberative and epistemic theories of democracy. Mill considered solitude to be contrary to political participation and public debate, but nonetheless regarded it as essential for democracy and for intellectual progress. Since the early 1830s Mill began developing an idea of solitude while simultaneously forming a particular kind of a democratic model which I refer to as ‘imperfect democracy’. According to this model, democracy is restrained by non-democratic elements which offer a contrary spirit and are not incorporated by democracy. At first Mill believed the ‘leisured class’ would fulfil this task, but later considered solitude as a possible solution. This paper follows the way in which these ideas were crystallised in Mill’s thought, and by doing so offers a novel interpretation of Mill’s political thought and his nuanced understanding of solitude, political participation and democracy.

Imperfect democracy and economic freedom

Recent research has explored the determinants of economic freedom, an important measure of institutional quality. Concurrently, some scholars have posited a negative relationship between the quality of economic institutions and democracy, specifically at very high levels of democracy. This paper disaggregates the Polity IV index into a vector of 20 dummy variables to explore how differing degrees of democracy and autocracy may impact economic freedom, thereby leaving open the possibility for levels of democracy modestly less than perfect democracy to have better effects on economic freedom. This paper will also consider the Vreeland re-estimate of the Polity IV index, the Grundler-Kreiger measure of democracy, the use of a quadratic term, and quantile regression. The weak evidence that is found points to a modest positive relationship between democracy and economic freedom, with little evidence that marginally less democracy will subsequently lead to more economic freedom.

Rooted in the Past, Active for the Future: Museums and Inspiring a New Generation of Citizens

ABSTRACTMuseums have a crucial role to play in building active citizens in their societies. In part, museums are well positioned to do this because developing new citizens is greatly strengthened by the study of the challenges and successes of the past. However, in looking for examples to learn from just as much can be gained by examining citizens working in imperfect or non-existent democracies as from those operating in long-tenured ones. This article looks at three such institutions that all seek to build citizenship while working with recent histories of dictatorship. While many aspects of their work are unique to each of their contexts, one clear lesson is shared by all of the institutions, active citizens need to be informed by the past, but museums can only be effective at inspiring citizens when they allow young people to address the pressing concerns of their own lives.

Comparing Cybersecurity in NATO and CSTO: Legal and Political Aspects

We compare cybersecurity policies of two international organizations, NATO and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). The countries of these organizations have a common cultural and historical basis. Given the principles of collective defense and collective security, both organizations strive to protect and integrate their traditionally own historical space. Both organizations move through the military cooperation to create a political union. Both organizations have a leader country. As cases for comparison, we choose organizations consisting of countries with completely different political regimes and, accordingly, different approaches to cybersecurity. In accordance with the Index of Democracy, most of the CSTO countries are states with a transitional regime, while NATO countries belong to democracies or countries with imperfect democracy. The countries have very specific legislation regulating the cyberspace. We use two levels (legal and practical) to analyze cyber strategies, institutions and experience (policies) of two organizations. We analyze the priorities mentioned in cyber strategies as well as terms, goals, and bodies in charge. First of all, we provide deep and comprehensive literature review on cybersecurity. The latter is performed on the following aspects of international cybersecurity: theoretical, legal, activities of international organizations, as well as NATO and CSTO positions on these issues. At the same time the study would be incomplete without understanding of implementation of the cybersecurity strategies. One of the ways to evaluate cyberpolicy effectiveness is based on comparison of countries’ positions in global rankings (e.g. ITU Global Cybersecurity Index). In addition the research considers official statistics data, experts’ surveys, public opinion polls and media publications.

WHAT IS «DEFECTIVE DEMOCRACIES» AND WHAT THEY ARE

This article analyzes the concept of defective democracy by German political scientist Wolfgang Merkel. Its development was caused by the need for a clearer distinction of new imperfect democracies, on the one hand, from the liberal constitutional democracies, and on the other hand, from autocracies, that mask their identity by democratic facade. The author pays attention to some incorrect interpretations of this concept, namely: the inter- pretation of defective democracies as the only transitive mode; the treatment of them as a specific kind of authoritarian regimes; the spread of this concept to all forms of hybrid regimes.The author analyzes in the detail the essence of this concept, relying on the works of the founders (Wolfgang Merkel, Hans-Jurgen Puhle, Aurel Croissant, and Peter Thiery) He emphasizes that the defects of democratic governance are of constitutional and legal nature and they are detected by comparing the imperfect democracies to established lib- eral democracies that within this concept are defined as «embedded». Democracy defects are deviations from the standards of democratic governance, copied from the current po- litical system of liberal constitutional democracies. The political regimes with such defects are identified as defective democracies. The article examines the subtypes of defective democracies, namely:Exclusive democracy that excludes some groups and/or individuals from the demo- cratic electoral system;Enclave democracy under which certain segments of democratic governance are con- trolled by private forces;Illiberal democracy, within which there are some violations of group rights and indi- vidual freedoms in favor of the social majority;Delegative democracy which violates the system of checks and balances and the ex- ecutive takes precedence over legislative and judicial.However, the regimes with such deficiencies remain democracies, if the significant defects are only part of regime, but not penetrating it through, denying the very meaning of democratic governance. Simultaneously, democratic defects in one partial regime to some extent are reflected also on the other, impairing the democratic functioning of the entire political regime.Finally, the author concludes that this concept is of great theoretical value for the reform of the modern Ukrainian political system. He stresses that a thorough analysis of the Ukrainian political system’s shortcomings in the context of a defective democracy concept is one of important tasks for the national political science.

Australian Literary Magazines as Sites Of Dissent

In this essay, I argue that Australian literary magazines are—and should be—primarily sites of dissent. But I also recognize that literary magazines sit on the fringes of the Australian national conversation and that relatively few Australian readers engage with them. I see dissent as a constructive and essential element of Australia’s imperfect capitalist liberal democracy and civil society and as a constructive and essential element of the way Australians seek to understand—or avoid seeking to understanding—the place of Australia in the world. Literary magazines rightly sit on fringes, and yet their minimal exposure to the mainstream is troubling and limiting.