Patterns of Participation in Post-Soviet Politics
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Patterns of Participation in Post-Soviet Politics Derek S. Hutchesona and Elena A. Korostelevab a Department of Politics, Adam Smith Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RT, UK. (From 1 January 2006: School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland). E-mail: [email protected]. Web: www.geocities.com/derekhutcheson b Department of International Politics, Jean Monnet Centre for European Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3DA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Web: http://www.aber.ac.uk/interpol/staff/index.html
The article examines trends in participation and engagement in the post-Soviet sphere, treating participation as one element of a wider examination of the ‘quality’ of democracy. Through analysis of trends in political interest, trust and traditional and non-traditional forms of participation since 1989, and taking into account elements of social and political capital, it concludes that the citizens in postcommunist European states display fewer signs of political engagement than their Western counterparts, and that such tendencies are particularly notable in the post-Soviet ‘outsider’ states of Russia, Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, Belarus. Examination of the causes of disengagement suggests that it is partly accounted for by low levels of political efficacy and lack of interest in civic affairs. Comparative European Politics (2006) 4, 23–46. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110068 Keywords: participation; social capital; quality of democracy; post-communist Europe; political interest; trust
Introduction The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the worldwide expansion of democratic government to hitherto unprecedented levels.1 On one indicator, the proportion of countries considered to be ‘democracies’ had increased from just over a quarter in 1974 to nearly two-thirds by 2001 (Diamond, 2002, 211; Karatnycky, 2002, 9). In the late 1980s, the speed with which ruling East European communist parties lost their hold on power in the space of a few short months, and the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union itself in 1991, led at least one philosopher to hypothesize ‘the end of history’ (Fukuyama, 1989). The Cold War was over; liberal democracy, it appeared, had won. A decade-and-a-half on from the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe is a very different continent. Ten former members of the Warsaw pact have joined
Derek S. Hutcheson and Elena A. Korosteleva Patterns of Participation in Post-Soviet Politics
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NATO,2 and accession talks are ongoing with Albania, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The year 2004 also witnessed a round of European Union (EU) enlargement eastwards to include eight member states that had been communist-ruled less than a generation ago, and further expansion in 2007–2009 is likely to embrace post-communist Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. The borders of Europe are becoming the next focus, with the emergence of a new European Neighbourhood Policy (http:// ue.eu.int/uedocs/cmsU
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