Nascent Democracy Research Articles

Denying “The Right to Have Rights”: Europe’s Imposition of Mandates in Greater Syria and the Rise of Islamist Movements

Abstract In 1920, the Syrian Congress at Damascus ratified a democratic constitution that would have been beyond the dreams of activists in the 2011 Arab Spring. Under the leadership of the leading Islamic reformer of the day, Sheikh Rashid Rida, the constitution disestablished Islam as a state religion, guaranteed one-third of parliamentary seats to non-Muslim minorities, and promised autonomy to the majority Christian territory of Mount Lebanon. Unlike the Ottoman constitution that had once reigned in Greater Syria, the Syrian document granted the preponderance of power to parliament, not the monarch. Nonetheless, the British and French colluded in the willful destruction of this nascent democracy. And with League of Nations’ support, they divided the Syrian Arab Kingdom into sectarian mandatory states. By stripping Syrian Arabs of a self-determined political community, Europeans denied them the “right to have rights,” as Hannah Arendt argued. The political backlash against European rule transformed the minority question in Syria into a polarized and violent contest, leading to the sectarian conflicts that overwhelmed Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine in the remainder of the 20th century.

Politicizing terror: the (ab)use of counterterrorism law for authoritarian ends in Tunisia

ABSTRACT This article analyses Tunisian President Kais Saied's abuse of counterterrorism law and his culpability in the country’s democratic backsliding. Following his election in 2019, Saied, with a split government and a growing economic and political crisis, took extreme measures to end the political deadlock, including dissolving the country’s parliament and claiming emergency powers in 2021. We argue that Saied has moved beyond making temporary moves to ensure political stability and is now seeking to use the country’s counterterrorism law as both his “weapon and shield,” conducting a targeted arrest campaign against opposition figures, and solidifying his authoritarian control of Tunisia. The arrest campaign, conducted primarily under the 2015 counterterrorism law, commenced in early 2023 and has included several prominent political figures in Tunisia. The charges, often stemming from an offender’s political statements, were framed as violations of the counterterrorism law, and were therefore justified to stem the tide of extremism and terrorism in Tunisia. Such legal abuse has allowed Saied to present his authoritarian actions as within the limits of the rule of law, a common approach for entrenched authoritarians. The analysis of arrest patterns suggests that a continued abuse of the counterterrorism law will eventually erode Tunisia’s nascent democracy.

Theatre of the Absurd, Pre-Election Matters and the Future of Democracy in Nigeria: Reflections on APC V Machina

The practice of theatre of the absurd is more present and popular with politicians in Africa than with playwrights. Particularly in Nigeria, the grotesque images and ridiculousness in the utterances of those saddled with the responsibilities of governance can only be viewed as characters in any known absurdist’ play. Nigeria is a nascent democracy, and the 2023 general elections are fraught with inadequacies right from the moment of selection of party candidates through the election proper. Candidates, political parties executives and the court have engineered these inadequacies. The concern of court being the last hope of common man, is on the administration of justice as perceived by parties involved in a case and the society. Therefore, a flawed judgment can only serve to dampen the peoples’ belief in the sanctity of the judiciary. On 28th May 2022, Bashir Machina contested and won the All Progressive Congress’s Yobe North Senatorial primary election unopposed, and in June the same year, the political party submitted the name of Ahmad Lawan to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as its candidate for the main election into the Senate. In the ensuing litigation, both lower court and court of appeal affirmed the authentic candidacy of Machina, however, the Supreme Court in its judgment, affirmed Ahmad Lawan as the APC candidate for the election to the Senate. It is against this background that this study examines APC v Machina and argued that in this particular case, justice has been perceived not to have been done by the large segment of the society based on the peoples reaction in the media. We conclude that the five justices of the Supreme Court with divided resolution of three against two, and other participants in the litigation, merely represent different characters of an absurd drama fit only for the stage.

Threats to Liberalism in a Nascent Democracy: Authoritarian Encroachment, a Security Dilemma, and a Political-Cultural Deficit

This article offers a complimentary analysis to Prof. Thompson’s treatise on democracy in East Asia. It focuses on the external source of democratic backsliding, a look into the future, and an emphasis on the dilemma of meeting the security challenge while remaining liberal in a world rapidly plunging into Cold War 2.0. Three sources of threat to nascent liberal democracies are identified: authoritarian encroachment, a security dilemma, and a political-cultural deficit. There are striking similarities between the response of a country to external threat and a human body’s response to pathogens (such as SARS-CoV-2). These responses also have similar effects on the survival of the country and the infected person. In order to analyze the relation between a country’s external environment and its polity, a historical account of how the perception of relative security managed to advance liberal political institutions and threats to national security thwarted liberalization in the constitutional development of the Republic of China is offered. This complement ends with a warning about how the world’s plunge into Cold War 2.0 may adversely impact nascent liberal democracies in East Asia that bear the brunt of the rise of an authoritarian China.

MEXICO’S DEMOCRACY UNDER THREAT? EFFECTS OF FEAR AND CORRUPTION IN MEXICO: UPDATED

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to expose public attitudes in Mexico towards the perceived success or failure of democracy in the country, and possible support for authoritarian alternatives that might be perceived as more successful in delivering justice and security. Theoretical Framework: Mexico’s new democracy has stalled due to severe and persistent corruption scandals and an overwhelming security and justice crisis, heightened by an explosion of violence associated with narcotics trafficking organized crime. The situation is serious enough to question the survival of democracy in Mexico. Design/Approach: This paper presents and analyzes data from the Americas Barometers of 2006 - 2019 that cover the main period of extreme insecurity in Mexico. Findings: The article confirms that Mexicans are disappointed with the way democracy works in Mexico. Their frustration is driven by several factors: perceptions of political corruption, concerns for the country’s safety and security, and their economic situation. The most salient concerns have to do with corrupt politicians and security. A substantial proportion of the Mexican public is considering trading democracy for security. Research, Practical, & Social Implications: Further study should examine if there is support for extra-legal suppression of crime, if support has increased perhaps out of frustration, and the complex relationship Mexicans have with the widespread perception that both the political system and the justice system is irrevocably corrupt. Originality/Value: The issue of the survival of nascent democracy is of great interest in comparative politics and Latin American studies. The broader question is how to help youg democracies mature into healthy democracies.

Politics, Shakespeare, East-Central Europe: Theatrical Border Crossings

This essay discusses how productions of Shakespeare’s plays that transcend various geographical, national, and linguistic boundaries have influenced the theatrical-political discourse in East-Central Europe in the twenty-first century. It focuses primarily on the work of four internationally-established directors: Andrei Şerban (Romania), Jan Klata (Poland), David Jařab (Czech Republic), and Matei Vișniec (Romania), whose works have facilitated interregional cultural exchange, promoting artistic innovation and experimentation in the region and beyond. Among the boundary-crossing productions analysed in detail are Vișniec’s Richard III will not Take Place, Jařab’s Macbeth – Too Much Blood, Klata’s Measure for Measure, and Serban’s Richard III. The essay also notes that while there has been a relative scarcity of Shakespearean productions in this region engaging closely with gender and race inequalities, productions such as Klata’s African Tales or Vladimír Morávek’s Othello manage to work with these politically charged topics in subtler but still productive ways. The essay concludes that the region’s shared historical experience of totalitarian regimes followed by the struggles of nascent democracies, provides a fertile ground for a diverse and internationally ambitious Shakespearean theatre. The publication of the article was supported by the International Visegrad Fund, project no. 22210007, titled “Crossing Borders with Shakespeare since 1945: Central and Eastern European Roots and Routes.” The project is co-financed by the Governments of the Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia through Visegrad Grants. The mission of the Fund is to advance ideas for sustainable regional cooperation in Central Europe.

Ghana’s democracy and the digital public sphere: some pertinent issues

Ghana’s media has been one of the biggest bulwarks of its nascent democracy since the transition to democratic rule in 1992. What has become known as the Fourth Estate of the Realm is now gradually being digitally networked as a result of the emergence of new media technologies. Using existing data mostly from media think-tanks such as Penplusbytes, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), media and other online sources, this paper appraises the role of digital media in the process of consolidating Ghana’s democracy under the Fourth Republican Constitution within the lens of Habermas’ concept of the public sphere. The study focuses on the 2016 and 2020 general elections of Ghana and analyses the influence of digital media in strengthening democratic values such as political participation, activism and public opinion formation. We conclude that the Habermasian model of the structural transformation of the public sphere (1962) is partly applicable to the Ghanaian media landscape. Although challenges such as the elite stranglehold on the traditional media landscape have been widespread since the beginning of the political transition in 1992, the emergence of the new media has brought new and complex dimensions to the debate. Specifically, while new media platforms have made immense contributions towards enhancing a general liberal environment, they suffer from several drawbacks such as unequal participation and lack of uniformity in public deliberations, with elites and other powerful social and economic actors generally holding sway. The phenomenon of fake news, online disinformation, the issue of digital divide, creeping state repression and COVID-19 restrictions during the 2020 election period have all combined to hamstring the Ghanaian new media which is currently at the center of a seemingly endless process of structural transformation.

Estimating the Effects of Political Instability in Nascent Democracies

Abstract In this paper, we revisit and examine the effect of political instability on institutional quality. To this end, we exploit the crackdown of government cabinet in 2008 that led to almost two decades of pervasive political instability using the unique case of Slovenia and estimate the average treatment effect of political instability and the missing counterfactual scenario for the period 1996–2020. Based on large-scale Bayesian analysis with Metropolis–Hastings algorithm, we extract the residual component of institutional quality from the variation in predetermined unobserved characteristics. Across more than 1.5 million sequenced random samples, we construct novel time-varying estimates of institutional quality at the local and regional level. Our difference-in-differences and synthetic control estimates emphasize a rampant deterioration of institutional quality in response to political instability with evidence of weakened rule of law, less effective public sector, decreased political accountability, and more widespread prevalence of power abuses. The estimated negative effects of political instability are robust to a variety of placebo checks across more than 12 billion placebo averages for institutional quality outcome variable using random sampling method of treatment permutation.

Assessing the relationship between digital divide and citizens’ political participation in Africa

ABSTRACT The proliferation of access to digital technology has raised remarkable interest regarding its various effects on everyday life, with recent studies largely focusing on financial inclusion. This study examined the influence of digital inequalities on political participation in Africa’s nascent democracies using the sixth wave of Afrobarometer data covering 36 countries and involving 49 896 respondents. The descriptive analysis shows that nearly 70 per cent of the respondents voted, were interested in public affairs, and took part in political discussions. Furthermore, digital inequalities were found to be geographically correlated, with the highest prevalence in Southern Africa. Using the OLS regression technique, we observe that access to the internet and mobile phones and usage thereof have strong positive relationships with various aspects of political participation, among others. Our results suggest the need to promote policies directed towards reducing digital inequalities, including internet usage subsidies, to engage citizens in political participation.

Southeast Asian leaders’ political orientation towards the environmental policy outcome

In this paper, we present an analysis of the leaders’ backgrounds shaping their decisions towards environmental policy outcomes of nascent democracies such as countries in Southeast Asia, with a specific focus on leaders’ traits and socio-economic conditions. Drawing on factors that influence a leader's decision-making process, including external factors such as social and economic and internal factors (cognitive or traits), this study explores the variation of quality of environmental policy outcomes in Southeast Asian countries. Our findings suggest that the level of development negatively affects environmental policy outcomes, while democratic conditions do not play a significant role. We also find that leaders’ age and level of education negatively affect environmental policy outcomes, whereas gender is not correlated with the quality of the environment. This research provides valuable insights into the environmental policy landscape of Southeast Asia and offers recommendations for policymakers seeking to enhance environmental policy outcomes in the region.

Emigration of Scientists From Czechoslovakia During the Soviet Domination.

Czechoslovakia was created after the First World War in 1918 as a common state of Czechs, Moravians, and Slovaks. After several transformations, 2 separate republics were established from Czechoslovakia in 1993: the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The objective of this article was to analyze the Prague Spring (1968), the period after the invasion into Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact Troops (1968), the period of cruel normalization (1968-1989), and the influence of Soviet domination in the Czechoslovak Republic on people with higher education. The invasion of the Warsaw Pact Troops into Czechoslovakia and the period of normalization had a highly negative impact on the life and work of the Czechoslovak people. Many eminent scientists left the Republic. The reason for this was persecution for their attitude to the situation behind the Iron Curtain. Professor Jan Brod, a world-renowned nephrologist and cardiologist, one of the signatories of the Two Thousand Words Manifesto, emigrated to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968. Professor William Ganz, a world-renowned cardiologist of Slovak origin, emigrated to the United States in 1966. With Jeremy Swan, he was a coinventor of the Swan-Ganz balloon flotation catheter. Primary reasons for the emigration of scientists from Czechoslovakia was the suppression of the nascent democracy (the Prague Spring in 1968 by the invasion of Warsaw Pact Troops and the continuation of Soviet rule).

Review: Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens

Review: <i>Building Democracy in Late Archaic Athens</i>

Speaking through Petitions: Peasant Farmers in the Nascent Democracy, Denmark 1830s

This article investigates the first generation of peasant farmers elected to modern representative assemblies in Denmark. I argue that the contributions of the first peasant farmer politicians are an important but overlooked part of the history of democratisation in Denmark. The peasant farmer members were uneducated and unable to speak in a way considered suitable for parliament. For that reason, they were deemed unfit for political participation by their contemporaries and have been similarly judged in most of the existing literature. The peasant farmer members were not as timidly passive as they have been described. Instead of speaking, they used petitions to gain a voice in parliament. The farmer members thus introduced petitioning as a form of political participation in parliamentary politics, a practice that remains central to popular politics today. The actions of the peasant farmer politicians challenged the existing boundaries of what was considered appropriate political practice and thereby expanded the repertoire of forms of political participation available to the uneducated majority of the population.

Making the “Citizen Constitution”: Popular Participation in the Brazilian Transition to Democracy, 1985–1988

AbstractThis article examines popular participation in the making of Brazil's 1988 post-authoritarian “Citizen Constitution.” In 1987, Brazilians submitted 122 popular amendments (emendas populares) supported by over 12 million signatures to the National Constituent Assembly (1987–88). As this article contends, this extraordinary experiment in popular constitution-making problematizes notions of Brazil's transition from authoritarian to democratic rule as the most conservative of those that swept Latin America at the end of the Cold War. The popular amendments emerged amid a nationwide campaign for popular participation that saw millions of Brazilians participate in letter-writing campaigns, protests, and debates over the constitution that carried over into the halls of the Constituent Assembly itself. I argue that the popular amendments countered the arbitrary authoritarianism of the Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964–85) with a constitutionalism in which everyday Brazilians would safeguard democracy through popular participation in government. While only partially consolidated, this vision offered diverse marginalized groups an opportunity to claim full citizenship in Brazil's nascent democracy, especially in ways that more overtly addressed issues of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability. This article thus shows that far from being the exclusive province of political elites, everyday people meaningfully shaped the constitutional restorations in late twentieth-century Latin America.

Christianity and Citizens’ Participation in the Electoral Process: A Case of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Southern Province of Zambia

This article assesses the influence that the Christian religious beliefs and practices of the Seventh Day Adventist Church (hereinafter SDA) in Zambia’s nascent democracy. By employing a comparative theoretical approach, it highlights religious motivations that are meant to drive the levels of participation of members of the SDA in the electoral process such as campaigns and voting. Furthermore, it identifies secular factors that influence their civic participation as well as the emergent trends that have become characteristic of SDA political involvement. In this light, the article argues that secular factors have increasingly become more predominant than Christian motivations in SDA members’ political involvement. This trend was evidenced by electoral results in Southern province of Zambia, which holds the stronghold of the Church’s membership. Thus, the article recommends, among other things, that leaders of the SDA Church should offer clear teachings and consistent guidance on members’ participation in politics. This will require, at least in the Zambian context, recalibrating the Church’s religious education on civic matters.

Observing without reporting: critiquing the failure of election observers to report preemptive electoral prophecies in Nigeria

Although Nigerian elections are sufficiently observed by domestic and international observer groups, the frequent pronouncements of religious leaders claiming to have supernatural insights into election outcomes have never captured the attention of these observers. This is despite the fact that election prophecy may have adverse effects on the electoral process and the survival of Nigeria’s nascent democracy. This paper critiques the failure of election observers to capture this unfolding trend in their reports bearing in mind that pre-emptive electoral prophecies violate Section 95 (3) (b) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). The tendency to question the integrity and neutrality of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and the judiciary (in cases of post-election litigations), has worsened because of unguarded electoral prophetism. It is therefore recommended that election prophecy should be captured in official election reports so as to – at least – show its enormity. This may trigger a concerted effort among election stakeholders to control it.

Social Media Content Preferences and Political Participation among Nigerian Youths

This study examines the influence of social media content preferences on political participation in Nigeria’s relatively nascent democracy. Due to mixed conclusions on the influence of news and entertainment preferences on political participation, we sampled 434 youths aged 18-35 in a Nigerian northern state, to investigate the differential influence of diverse social media content consumption on political participation. Incorporating the moderating and mediating influences of political efficacy and incidental news exposure, findings confirm that news and entertainment preferences are positive, significant predictors of political participation among respondents. While political efficacy moderated the influence of news preference on political participation, incidental news exposure did not mediate the influence of entertainment preference on political participation. We recommend further investigation into the influence of content preferences on political participation among Nigerian youths who constitute considerable members of the nation’s electorate.

Deliberations in Dance: Affecting Publics and the Politics of Ethnicity in Guinea’s Nascent Democracy

AbstractGuinea’s postindependence state (1958-84) discouraged ethnic identification in favor of national solidarity. In the decades since, ethnic groups have increasingly been mobilized as political interest groups in Guinea, a phenomenon that has been especially visible in recent multiparty elections. At the same time as ethnicity resurfaced as an explicit political force, young performing artists in Guinea’s capital city Conakry were inventing genres of dance and urban ceremony that de-emphasize ethnicity as a marker of belonging. Cohen engages with an interdisciplinary literature on publics to describe how the aesthetic practices of non-elite African youth constitute a crucial form of political engagement.

Buying out the political support of the poor with Ghana’s leap programme: An empirical fact or fiction?

There is a consensus around the view that pro-poor programmes constitute an effective response to extreme poverty. However, available evidence indicates that the political class in many nascent democracies use such programmes to extract electoral returns from the poor beneficiaries. The Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) programme attempts to support the poor to leap out of poverty. Using concurrent mixed methods approach, this article examined the extent to which LEAP benefits get to the poor, and also to ascertain if the recipients feel compelled to reciprocate government’s generosity by supporting the incumbent electorally. The results suggest that the selection of LEAP communities and beneficiaries are motivated by partisan consideration. Thus, politicians use LEAP to reward party supporters. It concludes that LEAP benefits constitute insufficient motivation to swing the political support of beneficiaries toward the incumbent since most of them were affiliated to either NPP or NDC prior to their selection.

Radical Islam and Insurgency in Northern Nigeria: Tensions and Challenges

Located within a broad appraisal of Nigeria’s nascent democracy, this paper examined the roots and triggers of radical Islam and religious extremism in Northern Nigeria. It also investigated its implication in the region through the lenses of religion and politics. Since 1804, a tradition of jihadist Islam in the north, introduced by Sheikh Uthman dan Fodio, has shaped not only the politics of the region but has festered into modern-day insurgency. This radicalism enthroned an intolerant, anti-Western and violent Islamic ideology used against minorities within and against other religions, ethno-regional groups, and political blocs in Nigeria. What exactly are the triggers of religious violence in today’s Northern Nigeria? Furthermore, if any, what are the implications for this region? Drawing on archival materials and secondary sources, findings reveal deep-seated, anti-southern sentiments in the north, complicated by religious, cultural, and economic suspicions, whipped up at political intersections. Evidence also indicates significant leadership failures. This internal complexity holds back Northern Nigeria’s overall economic and social modernisation pace. This paper recommends state-sponsored awareness campaigns that emphasise diversity, integration and unity. To overcome insurgency, politics must deliver dividends of democracy to all. Governance must become a means to economic ends and not an end in itself.