REINTERPRETING THE DEMOCRACY DISILLUSIONMENT IN THE CEE DEMOCRACIES: Evidence from protest event analysis in 1989-2010 , paper prepared for WPSA conference 2013, coauthored by O. Císař (original) (raw)
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Does protest signify disaffection? Demonstrators in a postindustrial democracy
2006
The rise in demonstrations activism raises important questions about the causes of this phenomenon, in particular who engages in demonstrations. Three accounts exist in the literature: emphasizing the importance of political disaffection, strategic resource, and context. After comparing rise in protest politics in two dozen older and newer democracies, the study focuses upon Belgium, a postindustrial society exemplifying these developments. The social background, attitudinal, and behavioral characteristics of demonstrators are scrutinized drawing upon the Belgian general election survey of 1999 and surveys conducted among the participants of seven different demonstrations in Belgium (1998Belgium ( -2001. The study establishes that, compared with party members and civic joiners, demonstrators are similar to the Belgian population and there is little evidence that Belgian demonstrators are anti-state radicals. Yet some significant social, attitudinal, and behavioral contrasts demarcate different groups of demonstrators, which supports the contextual perspective. Far from representing a major threat or challenge to the state, the evidence in this case study suggests that demonstrations have become one of the major channels of public participation in representative democracies.
Since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis in 2008, protests against austerity and raising social inequality have increasingly taken place in many regions of the world. Central and Eastern Europe is one of those regions, and has recently experienced several large-scale protest movements. These protests were partially triggered by intensified austerity measures, higher unemployment rates and growing dissatisfaction with democracy. However, the particular reasons to protest are diverse, ranging from environmental to social or anti-corruption issues. Despite the differences that exist in Central and Eastern Europe countries, we argue that they share a common pattern in terms of the societal environment of protest. As a first step, we will critically assess the forms of protest participation in Central and Eastern Europe and map out common features of the identified crisis-prone development since 1989. In the subsequent part, we will argue that such features as the growing gap between the political elite and citizens, harsh individual economic conditions and a high level of frustrated expectations have become more visible and have heavily contributed to the increasing unrest. We conclude that the crisis-prone development since 1989 has created an ambivalent ecology of protest in Central and Eastern Europe. The vast majority of citizens face economic hardship and do not have the means to interfere with or participate in democratic processes as effectively as the political and economic elites do. A growing number of citizens, however, appear to be more willing to raise their voices visibly in public. Secondly, the increase in protests indicates a deeper societal crisis. In this sense, Central and Eastern Europe can be understood as a " laboratory " for testing the social conditions of democracy.
Political Activism: Post-communist Challenges and Opportunities in East Central Europe
Partecipazione e Conflitto, 2016
Contrary to standard narratives on the declining function of parties in fostering political participation, this article argues that far from abandoning the cause of participation, post-communist political parties diversified the understanding of the party as a mobilizing agency by adapting their internal organizations. On the basis of a mid-range number of cases (e.g. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia) the study identified different patterns of evolution within a complex interaction effect between participation and organizational development. The peculiarity of the parties’ organization and functions has shaped political participation both as an opportunity structure (legitimizing the political system and increasing citizens’ involvement in politics) and as a democratic challenge (increasing the pro-pensity of parties towards populism, ‘seasonal’ membership, corruption and clientelism).
kppcenter.org
In the recent decades protest participation has become most widely accepted and practiced form of citizen engagement in western democracies. Many researchers believe protest participation is crucial for democracy to be consolidated and effective, and previous studies have shown that protest participation is one of the main characteristics of a democratic public. Though protest is on the increase in western democracies, it declined in postcommunist democracies from 1990 to 2000. The bulk of participation research still comes from western countries and less is known about participation patterns of postcommunist and especially post-Yugoslav citizens. More importantly, previous cross-national studies have mostly not dealt with the motivations behind protest participation in post-Yugoslav countries. The aim of our research was twofold: firstly, we compared levels of protest participation (signing petitions, joining in boycotts, and attending lawful/peaceful demonstrations) in three regions: seven post-Yugoslav countries (BiH, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), seventeen established EU democracies, and nine East-Central European EU member states. Secondly, we analyzed the relationship between protest participation and prodemocratic political culture (i.e. democracy index consisting of items indicating acceptance of democracy and rejecting authoritarian rule) in all three regions. We employed the newest (2008) wave of European Values Study, which consists of representative national surveys. The results indicated that post-Yugoslav population is almost as protest oriented (Mprotest = 1.89) as citizens in western countries (M = 1.93), and significantly more than ECE EU member states (M = 1.55). Interestingly, within post-Yugoslav countries, citizens of Kosovo and Macedonia report the highest levels of protest potential. The results also showed that protest participation is positively and statistically significantly associated with prodemocratic orientations in all three regions, as well as within all seven post-Yugoslav national samples. If Europeanization of West Balkan countries is understood in terms of their populations taking part in elite-challenging behaviour (e.g. protest participation) motivated by pro-democratic orientations, The WBP Review website: http://www.kppcenter.org/wbpreview.html Subscriptions/Submissions/Reprint Permissions/Distribution: journal@kppcenter.org This electronic version of the WBP Review article is intended for personal, individual use. Distribution in any way, including online posting, without prior permission by the publisher is prohibited. The Western Balkans Policy Review Volume 2, Issue 2 (2012) 96
Europe-Asia Studies, 2015
This study develops and tests two arguments for how repertoires of political action are reconfigured in postcommunist Romania. Using multivariate statistical analysis, it examines whether citizens' engagement in postcommunist politics is linked with generic socioeconomic and attitudinal traits or alternatively, it is connected with selective mobilization opportunities provided by social networks and organizations. The findings reveal that while most Romanians are politically inactive two decades after the fall of communism, those who engage in politics do it selectively and their political action repertoires are largely influenced by four mobilizing agents: trade unions, political parties, social networks and civil society organizations. The literature on post-communist politics generally points out a stark contrast between the effervescence of social movements that led to the collapse of the communist regimes and the relative apathy after the establishment of democracy (Letki 2003). While democratic theory posits that political engagement plays an important role in the equal representation of citizens' needs and preferences in the democratic political processes, post-communist citizens seem to be increasingly estranged from politics. Thus, the identification of factors shaping how and how much citizens participate in the political sphere is important (Johann 2012) as it points to the underlying sources of political apathy in the region. However, research on post-communist 'repertoires' of political participation in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is insufficient and this hampers our understanding of the functioning and persistence of democracy in this region. A frequent finding in the political behaviour literature is that citizens of eastern European countries participate less in politics than their western neighbours (Bernhagen & Marsh 2007). But is this difference simply a matter of degree of citizen participation? Or do post-communist citizens and their western counterparts also differ in their understanding of what political participation means and how they combine various structural
Is protest participation in post-Yugoslav countries motivated by prodemocratic political culture?
In the recent decades protest participation has become most widely accepted and practiced form of citizen engagement in western democracies. Many researchers believe protest participation is crucial for democracy to be consolidated and effective, and previous studies have shown that protest participation is one of the main characteristics of a democratic public. Though protest is on the increase in western democracies, it declined in postcommunist democracies from 1990 to 2000. The bulk of participation research still comes from western countries and less is known about participation patterns of postcommunist and especially post-Yugoslav citizens. More importantly, previous studies have mostly not dealt with the motivations behind protest participation in postcommunist countries. The aim of our research was twofold: firstly, we compared levels of protest participation (signing petitions, joining in boycotts, and attending lawful demonstrations) in three regions: post-Yugoslav countries (BiH, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia), seventeen established EU democracies, and East-Central European EU members. Secondly, we analyzed the relationship between protest participation and prodemocratic political culture (i.e. democracy index consisting of items indicating acceptance of democracy and rejecting authoritarian rule) in all three regions. We employed the newest (2008) wave of European Values Study, which consists of representative national surveys. The results indicated that post-Yugoslav population was almost as protest oriented (Mprotest = 1.89) as citizen in western countries (M = 1.93), and significantly more than ECE EU members (M = 1.55). Interestingly, within post-Yugoslav countries, citizens of Kosovo and Macedonia reported the highest levels of protest potential. The results also showed that protest participation was positively and statistically significantly associated with prodemocratic orientations in all three regions, as well as within all seven post-Yugoslav national samples. If Europeanization of West Balkan countries is understood in terms of their populations taking part in elite-challenging behaviour (i.e. protest participation) motivated by pro-democratic orientations, then all non-EU post-Yugoslav countries seem well on their path to Europe. Implications of the results and future research suggestions are discussed.
Voting and protesting: Explaining citizen participation in old and New European democracies
2007
This article analyses the differences and similarities in citizen participation between the new democracies of central and eastern Europe and the established democracies of the west. Citizens in the post-communist countries participate less in politics than their western neighbours. The article asks why this is the case and finds that no satisfactory answers have been offered in the literature so far.
Europe-Asia Studies, volume 67, issue 8, 2015
This study develops and tests two arguments for how repertoires of political action are reconfigured in postcommunist Romania. Using multivariate statistical analysis, it examines whether citizens’ engagement in post-communist politics is linked with generic socioeconomic and attitudinal traits or, alternatively, if it is connected with selective mobilisation opportunities provided by social networks and organisations. The findings reveal that while most Romanians are politically inactive two decades after the fall of communism, those who engage in politics do so selectively and their political action repertoires are largely influenced by four mobilising agents: trade unions; political parties; social networks; and civil society organisations.
The article analyses the dominance of unconventional forms of participation by political players in Central and Eastern Europe on the example of Hungary and Poland. We have observed that mass demonstrations can be organized largely as anniversary events, behind which the political parties occur as initiators and organizers. Moreover, members of political parties founded “grass-roots” organizations to enforce political issues. We will try to answer the question, what led to this situation, which political and societal events are significant in this context? Besides, we focus on implications of such "partisan" alternative forms of political participation for normative understanding of democracy. Classic and contemporary theories of civil society serve as explanatory models.