Nondemocratic Systems Research Articles

Power and space in a rentier state: The case of mega mall boom in Tehran, Iran

Space is intertwined with the exercise of power. While exertion of power in the production of space has been frequently studied in democratic political systems, little attention has been paid to non-democratic systems. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the mega mall development process in Tehran. The study applies a four-dimensional view of power, including over, covert, latent, and disciplinary power, to investigate the exercise of power in the development of mega malls in Tehran. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach; data is collected through 48 semi-structured in-depth interviews and nine documents. The process of mega mall development in Tehran illustrates two levels of power dynamics. Firstly, powerful institutions emerge as winners while citizens lose out. This overt conflict involves monopolized decision-making and the rationalization and legitimization of ‘exceptions’, representing the covert and latent dimensions of power respectively. Secondly, the mega mall itself functions as a Panopticon by exerting disciplinary power. While power dynamics may share similarities across different systems, the distinctive aspect of mega mall development in Tehran lies in the monopolized process and pervasive perception manipulation as the key means of power exertion.

Chinese Constitutonal Performance Unveiled: Text Mining Insights in Civil Litigations

Abstract This article presents a comprehensive examination of the role of constitutions in private disputes, with a specific focus on the Chinese Constitution. Utilizing an extensive dataset of digitized court adjudications, this study delves into a relatively unexplored area, yielding crucial factual and legal insights. The research reveals that the Chinese Constitution significantly influences civil adjudications, both implicitly and explicitly. Furthermore, court judgments emerge as pivotal forces shaping public awareness of constitutional principles. These findings hold profound implications for comprehending the role of constitutions in contexts beyond democratic frameworks, particularly within the private sphere. The study underscores how the capitalist market in China empowers individuals to assert and safeguard private rights, consequently affording the Constitution a protective role in this realm. Concurrently, the existing regime has systematically eroded the Constitution’s influence in public affairs, maintaining its symbolic and rhetorical role. Notably, the concept of judicial independence remains a sensitive subject in China, leading many civil courts to eschew constitutional provisions in favor of political expediency. This paradox underscores the necessity of establishing a reasonably independent judiciary as an integral facet of constitutionalism in such settings. In sum, this research challenges prevailing assumptions about constitutionalism’s contours. It transcends the conventional focus on political authority, illustrating how empirical investigations into constitutional performance within civil litigation can illuminate the emergence of constitutionalism in the shadows of non-democratic systems. These findings offer valuable insights into the role of constitutions in private disputes and pave the way for further exploration within this evolving scholarly domain. Ultimately, this study advances our comprehension of constitutional realities and their far-reaching impacts on the legal landscape and society within contemporary China.

Is the Young Precariat a Problem of Modern Democracy? A Case Study of Poland

This article addresses the issue of the role and importance of the young precariat for the functioning of the democratic system. Based on scenario planning, it presents three possible directions for the development of democracy in the context of meeting the needs of the young precariat. The first scenario assumes a continuation of the measures applied so far by democratic governments towards young precarious people related to social policy and the low representation of the young generation in politics. The second involves a move away from democracy towards non-democratic systems, where the needs of precarious people are irrelevant. The third assumes a new approach among democratic governments to the needs of young precarious workers and the shaping of new social policies, as well as the creation of incentives for young precarious workers to be more widely involved in these policies. The empirical context for these considerations is an attempt to determine the possibility of the occurrence of each of these scenarios in Polish conditions, based on the results of qualitative studies conducted via asynchronous interviews with representatives of the young Polish precariat. The research relates to Poland and takes into account the characteristics of the Polish precariat. The article uses a mixed research methodology, combining different methods for solving research problems, including collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and presenting quantitative and qualitative data.

A versengő választás és a versengés fogalmának kihívásai

The paper relates to the literature on contemporary non-democratic systems with multi-party elections. It aims to prove that electoral competitiveness is a key concept for understanding these systems, but this concept is currently underdeveloped. It first reviews the main approaches of competition and competitiveness, then, using the widely accepted type of competitive authoritarian hybrid regime, argues that the concept developed by its inventors does not provide sufficient support to detect competitiveness, because the factor of uncertainty used by the concept creators to justify its existence is not accompanied by any real indicators. The conclusion of the article is that competitiveness should therefore be derived not from the unidentifiable uncertainty factor, but from the concept of electoral integrity, which indicates the existence or the absence of genuine (competitive) elections, and from the concept and characteristics of electoral manipulations.

سروشتی دامەزراندنی حزبە سیاسیەکان و کاریگەری لەسەر گەشەی دامەزراوە سیاسیەکان (هەرێمی کوردستان وەک نمونە)

The paper aims to investigate the impacts and relationships between the nature of emerging political parties and the problem of institutional weakness in the Kurdistan Region. It seeks to understand how political parties that have emerged from non-democratic systems perceive and interact with political institutions, and how this influences the process of institutionalization in the future. It argues that emerging political parties tend to have a negative impact on the institutionalization. Unlike previous studies, this one emphasizes the importance of the political environment of emerging political parties and their perceptions towards political institutions, rather than solely analyzing party systems. Through a desk study and analysis of literature on political parties, institutionalization criteria by Samuel Huntington, and a comparative approach, the article concludes that in developing countries and governments such as the Kurdistan Region, political parties that emerge from totalitarian environments often view themselves as superior and stronger than political institutions when they take control and assume power. This leads to abnormal relationships between the parties and weakens the institutionalization process. The study highlights the need for effective political will to address this complex situation.

Travelling Far and Wide? Applying the Multiple Streams Framework to Policy-Making in Autocracies

The Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) builds on the concepts of timing and ambiguity and their effects on the policy process. Since its introduction to agenda-setting in the U.S. presidential system, scholars have transferred the MSF’s core ideas to multiple issue areas, policy stages, and political systems. However, what has been lacking so far is a thorough discussion of the MSF’s travelling capacity to nondemocratic forms of government. Building on a brief summary of the MSF’s main ideas, this article discusses the challenges that policy-making in autocracies poses for MSF applications and ways to adapt it to the peculiarities that are typical for these regimes. The article focuses on the agenda-setting stage in which formal institutions are less important and introduces falsifiable hypotheses explaining agenda change. Due to tremendous differences regarding the organization of the decision-making process in autocratic regimes, the article only sketches out how the MSF could be adapted to explain policy change in this institutional setting. The article concludes with a discussion of whether the MSF is stretched too far by applying it to nondemocratic systems. It turns out that in theoretical and conceptual terms, the MSF travels surprisingly well to these systems.

Rola prawa karnego w systemie totalnej teokracji państwa muzułmańskiego

The aim of the study is to answer the question whether the way the system of criminal responsibility is shaped in classical Sharia law influences the characteristics of Islam understood as a political system seen as a total theocracy. The article presents the basic assumptions of the criminal law in Islam, focusing on the categories of crimes distinguished by traditional Muslim jurisprudence. The perceived features of Koranic criminal law regulation are juxtaposed with the attributes of criminal law of non-democratic systems, which leads to the conclusion that in the sphere of criminal law, there are many elements the two systems have in common. The individual’s position and the degree of protecting their rights resulting from the criminal law of Islam seem to make it impossible for a system based on classical Islamic law to meet the requirements of a modern democratic state.

Changes of the Political and Legal Systems: Judicial Autonomy

AbstractThis Article summarizes the features of modern non-democratic legal systems and draws the relevant conclusions. Some of these systemic issues have long-term consequences. The Article illustrates the defining effects of the historical traditions with concrete examples based on empirical researches. Judicial independence as part of the rule of law is not only institutional guarantees but cultural, mental dispositions too. This Article shows how non-democratic legal heritage led to backsliding democracy in post-communist Hungary. However relative autonomy of judges could emerge during the last three decades of the communist rule, skills and habits of professional self-defense could not stabilize.

Why Non-Democracy Engages with Western Democracy-Promotion Programs

ABSTRACTBetween the mid-1990s and the mid-2010s, the Chinese government was distinctly open to the Western offer of democracy-assistance programs. It cooperated with a number of Western organizations to improve the rule of law, village elections, administrative capacity, and civil society in China. Why did the Chinese government engage with democracy promoters who tried to develop these democratic attributes within China? The author argues that the government intended to use Western aid to its advantage. The Chinese Communist Party had launched governance reforms to strengthen its regime legitimacy, and Chinese officials found that Western democracy assistance could be used to facilitate their own governance-reform programs. The article traces the process of how the government’s strategic intention translated into policies of selective openness, and includes evidence from firsthand interviews, propaganda materials, and research by Chinese experts. The findings show how democracy promoters and authoritarian leaders have different expectations of the effects of limited democratic reform within nondemocratic systems. Empirically, reflecting on the so-called golden years of China’s engagement with the West sheds new light on the Chinese Communist Party’s survival strategy through authoritarian legitimation.

Can Filter Bubbles Protect Information Freedom? Discussions of Algorithmic News Recommenders in Eastern Europe

The increasing use of recommender systems to provide personalized news delivery influences media systems worldwide. Using different data sources to predict what content will be interesting for specific readers, recommender systems can better accommodate individual information needs, but also raise concerns about potential audience fragmentation. However, current assessments of the effects of news personalization are predominantly based on observations from Western democracies. This Western-centric approach raises concerns about these assessments’ applicability to other contexts, in particular non-democratic ones, and brings to question the influence of prevalent Western conceptualisations of news personalization (e.g., filter bubbles) on attitudes towards it in non-Western countries. To address this gap, we scrutinize discussions of the promises and threats of news personalization in countries characterized by limited press freedom: Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Using document analysis, we examine how three categories of actors—academics, journalists and IT specialists—discuss news personalization and the ways it can affect the public sphere. Through our analysis we uncover how Western conceptualisations of news personalization interact with discussions about it in non-democratic media systems and scrutinize whether existing concerns about personalization are applicable to non-Western contexts.

Environmental Protection under Authoritarian Regimes in Cold War Chile and Hungary

Abstract Authoritarian regimes are often seen to be hostile toward the environment, albeit there is a growing body of literature suggesting a more nuanced image when it comes to authoritarian governments and the environment. However, several aspects of human-nature relationship need further clarification in non-democratic systems, both on the political left and right. In this article we aim to address that challenge by analysing Cold War economic and environmental goals and responses of the right-wing military junta in Chile under Pinochet and the Hungarian state-socialist, USSR-satellite regime under Kádár. By analysing two radically different political and economic approaches to economic catchup, while mitigating environmental costs on the way, this study aims to understand better the ecological motivations in authoritarian regimes operating diverse political and economic agendas.

Public Confidence in the Judiciary and the Police – Does Respondents Internalize Montesquieu’s Ideas?

Abstract Due to its unique role in the separation of powers framework, judiciary is typically among the first targets of illiberal take-overs. The popular perception of the judicial system – translating into its legitimacy – might prove to be its ultimate safeguard or primary source of vulnerability. This paper employs cross-country survey data to uncover to what extent the idea of separation of powers between the judiciary and the executive is embedded in public perception. It analyses the data on trust in the judiciary (or the legal system) the Police and the national government. Assuming that separation of powers is well embedded in the public opinion, one could expect that courts and the police would be assessed separately (i.e., not highly correlated confidence levels). Moreover, it is reasonable to expect that confidence in the police and in the government – Montesquieu executive branch – would be higher than between the police and the judiciary. On the contrary, if respondents assessed institutional performance within functional clusters, courts and the police would be assessed jointly (i.e., highly correlated confidence levels). Evidence form WVS and European Social Survey suggests, that the latter is the case. Interestingly, the finding holds in both democratic and non-democratic systems, indicating serious vulnerability for liberal (constitutional democracy) design.

Sądy konstytucyjne w Polsce i Europie Środkowo-Wschodniej

After the Second World War, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe were under the influence of the systemic solutions imposed by the USSR. Their constitutional systems were non-democratic systems based on one ideology and the monopoly of one party. The imposed political and socio-economic system concerned all spheres of the individual's life, changed the social structure and economic system. It was only his fall that opened the way to building a new regime, this time a democratic one. In individual countries, these changes took place differently – from reform efforts to almost revolutions. At the same time, transformation processes began, ending with the adoption of the constitution. The new constitutions contained, among others regulations regarding basic human and civil rights and freedoms, whose protection also requires institutional and procedural security. A special role in securing these rights is the judicial system in a given state, and it is not only about common and administrative courts, but also the constitutional judiciary. The article presents the formation of constitutional judiciary in selected countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the scope of their competences and the way they function.

Liberalizm wobec polaryzacji politycznych

Liberalism and political polarization: The customary classification of the ideological doctri‑ nes in democratic systems, which expanded along a left–right axis, is nowadays obsolescent and has been deconstructed. At the same time, the close and strong connection between de‑ mocracy and liberalism, on which the primary model of liberal democracy was established, has been broken in many places of the world. The emerging of illiberal democracies has made the liberal component the main criterion for the classification of contemporary political systems, instead of dividing them into democratic and nondemocratic systems as before. Numerous ideological options could also be classified as being contrary to the liberal one. Liberalism has thus become important in the typologies and analyses of contemporary political systems and ideological options as the opposite to those systems on many new axes.

Better Not at All Than Not Well. A Review of a Biography of Władysław Gomułka

Wladyslaw Gomulka was the Polish communist leader who, most probably, played the most important role in the history of Poland. In the years 1943–48 he was the Secretary of the Polish Workers’ Party, and next, from 1956 to 1970, the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party. According to the rule ‘the more power the more responsibility’, which had particular significance in non-democratic systems, Gomulka was responsible or co-responsible for everything good but also for everything bad that happened in Poland during his rule. At the same time he is this Polish communist leader, on whose life and activity over twenty books were published. One of the recent ones was published by Anita Prazmowska. Unfortunately, this is not a successful attempt.

Outspoken Insiders: Political Connections and Citizen Participation in Authoritarian China

Few political systems are completely closed to citizen participation, but in nondemocratic systems and developing democracies, such participation may come with risks. In these contexts where fear and uncertainty may be high, why do some citizens still take action and make complaints to authorities? The resource mobilization model identifies the importance of time, money, and civic skills as resources that are necessary for participation. In this paper, we build on this model and argue that political connections—close personal ties to someone working in government—can also constitute a critical resource, especially in contexts with weak democratic institutions. Using data from both urban and rural China, we find that individuals with political connections are more likely to contact authorities with complaints about government public services, despite the fact that they do not have higher levels of dissatisfaction with public service provision. We conduct various robustness checks, including a sensitivity analysis, and show that this relationship is unlikely to be driven by an incorrect model specification or unobserved confounding variables.

Strategic gerontocracy: why nondemocratic systems produce older leaders

One characteristic of nondemocratic regimes is that leaders cannot be removed from office by legal means: in most authoritarian regimes, no institutional way of dismissing incompetent rulers is available, and overthrowing them is costly. Anticipating this, people who have a say in the selection of the leader are likely to resort to alternative strategies to limit his tenure. In this paper, we examine empirically the “strategic gerontocracy” hypothesis: Because selecting aging leaders is a convenient way of reducing their expected time in office, gerontocracy will become a likely outcome whenever leaders are expected to rule for life. We test this hypothesis using data on political leaders for the period from 1960 to 2008, and find that dictators have shorter life expectancies than democrats at the time they take office. We also observe variations in the life expectancies of dictators: those who are selected by consent are on average closer to death than those who seize power in an irregular manner. This finding suggests that gerontocracy is a consequence of the choice process, since it disappears when dictators self-select into leadership positions.

Liberal democracy as the end of history

A growing number of political scientists have recently advocated the theses that democracy has emerged as a universal value and that it is also becoming the universally preferred system of government. Do most people in East Asia prefer democracy to nondemocratic systems, as advocates of these Western theses claim? Do they embrace liberal democracy as the most preferred system as they become socioeconomically modernized and culturally liberalized? To address these questions, we first propose a typology of privately concealed political system preferences as a new conceptual tool in order to ascertain their types and subtypes without using the word “democracy”. By means of this typology, we analyze the third wave of the Asian Barometer Survey conducted in 12 democratic and nondemocratic countries. The analysis reveals that a hybrid system, not liberal democracy, is the most preferred system even among the culturally liberalized and socioeconomically modernized segments of the East Asian population. Our results show that the increasingly popular theses of universal and liberal democratization serve merely in East Asia as prodemocracy rhetoric, not as theoretically meaningful propositions.

Reforming governance under authoritarianism: motivations and pathways of local participatory reform in the People’s Republic of China

ABSTRACTMany authoritarian regimes use participatory political reform to maintain control over the societies under their rule and survive global waves of democratization. Recent studies of transitional governance have underscored the importance and intricacy of institutional reform; however, no consensus has been reached on an explanation of the dynamism that shapes institutional reforms under non-democratic systems. Why do authoritarian apparatchiks reform their institutions of governance? How can the varied pathways of these reforms be explained? Post-Deng China provides an ideal laboratory in which to study these issues. Since the 1990s, growing tensions between the Leninist polity and a gradually opened society have compelled local governments in China to test a vast set of participatory reforms. In an examination of three major local participatory budgeting reforms in China, this article maps the main pathways – representation, consultation, and transparency – of these recent sub-national participatory reforms implemented by the incumbent regime, and explores the driving forces that sculpt a reformist model over the alternatives. By introducing an “incentive-contingent framework”, this article sketches out the “repertoire” of participatory reforms in the authoritarian governance of China and suggests an explanatory framework for the variation in the strategies and forms of such institutional innovations.

Russia and the Vulnerability of Electoral Authoritarianism?

AbstractThe notion of electoral authoritarianism emerged in the post-cold war world to refer to authoritarian systems that used seemingly democratic electoral means to stabilize non-democratic systems. This was achieved through the production of massive electoral majorities for the ruling party. However an element of uncertainty remains with such elections in that the ruling party may be either defeated or suffer a significant electoral rebuff. Such events are usually seen in terms of the loss of voter support for the party, but as the Russian case shows, this may be better seen as evidence of a basic malfunction of the electoral authoritarian mechanism itself.