The Relative Success of Democratization in Central and Eastern Europe, And the Relative Failure of Democratization in Post-Soviet Eurasia

[Name Institute]Democratization in Soviet Union CEE

Introduction

The worldwide surge of democratization since the eighties was the hope germinate, that in the foreseeable future the majority of states no longer ruled autocratically and down as well as an essential building block for the democratic peace in the international system would. The events in Afghanistan and Iraq have shown once again that authoritarian regimes can be replaced relatively easily through military force, the desired democratization processes, however, quickly stalled or even threatened by failure (Whitehead, 2003). Two regions stand out clearly from this very ambivalent scenario, namely Central and Eastern, and Latin America (Tansey, 2007).

All these countries have made since 1989/90 significant progress in building a stable and functioning democracy. In the majority of Central and Eastern European countries today there is clarity on the national statehood, and state power structures are not only established but also sufficiently differentiated. These essential conditions for the functioning of democratic processes are in place. In all countries of the region determines the population of those in power in free and fair elections and has the basic political freedoms in a democracy. On the other hand, while East Central European countries were ensuring the rule of law in spite of major corruption problems as a whole, the deficits of the Southeast European countries are more pronounced here. This applies not only to penalize abuse of authority, but also the separation of powers and the enforcement of civil liberties (Whitehead, 2003).

Discussion

The Relative Success of Democratization in CEE

In Central and Eastern European countries, democratic institutions are sufficiently accepted and powerful, even if there is friction in the interaction of institutions. In Southeastern Europe, however, the efficiency and functioning of democratic institutions are more affected, and in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia strong veto players accept the basic state institutions as a result of ethno-political conflicts (Schimmelfennig, 2010).

All Central and Eastern European countries still show deficits in the consolidation of advocacy and civic culture. In none of the countries you will find a socially rooted party system in the sense of stable, high membership and stable environment contoured voters. In all countries of the region clear majorities support democracy, even if the agreement is lower than on individual democratic institutions in Western Europe. A further consolidation step is to determine the extent that the agreement is largely decoupled from the much more negative for democracy assessment of the ruling political elite (Mucha, 2007).

In Latin America, democracy was quite different. Apart from Costa Rica, that is governed democratically since 1949 without interruption, passed in the recent wave of democracy some 20 years between the first transition and its last. The appearance of the political regime is very heterogeneous: Haiti's successive attempt after the democracy of the nineties has returned to an authoritarian system, while Cuba has so far remained resistant to substantial democratic reforms (McFaul, 2001).

Only the two small countries Costa Rica and Uruguay ...