Suchergebnisse

While the literature of hybrid regimes has given up the presumption that post-communist countries must democratize, its language and concepts still mostly relate to Western democracies. Magyar and Madlovics strongly argue for a vocabulary and grammar tailored to the specifics of the region. In 120 theses they unfold a conceptual framework with (1) a typology of post-communist regimes and (2) a detailed presentation of ideal-type actors and the political, economic, and social phenomena in these regimes. The book is a more digestible companion to the 800-page The Anatomy of Post-Communist Regimes (CEU Press, 2020), which was a detailed theoretical study with plenty of empirical illustrations. Each of the 120 theses contains a statement and its concise discussion supported by illustrative tables, figures, and QR-codes that connect the interested reader to the more detailed analysis in the Anatomy. In a condensed variety, this book has kept the holistic approach of the Anatomy and treats the spheres of political, market, and communal action as parts of a single, coherent whole. The endeavor to synthesize a vast range of ideas does not, however, result in a too complicated text. On the contrary, freed from the implicit presumptions of democracy theory, the new terminology yields a readily usable toolkit of unambiguous means of expression to speak about post-communism

The article examines some effects from the first approbation of a two-tier proportional system with "flexible" lists in the local elections in Ukraine in 2020. In the comparative-regional context, the impact of the new system on the increase in the number of invalid ballots is analyzed and the percentage of voters who exercised the right to preferential voting for a particular candidate from the district list of the elected party is calculated. Hypotheses about regional differences in these quantitative parameters are formulated: in particular, the share of invalid ballots may be influenced by ethnolinguistic and urban factors. It was found that about 80% of voters who took part in the autumn 2020 vote exercised the right to preferential voting by entering the number of a particular candidate on the ballot – this unexpectedly high figure is in the context of other national cases using proportional systems with "flexible" or clean "open" lists. Particular attention is focused on the relationship between the two levels of the electoral system – the single closed and district flexible lists, and, accordingly, the balance of influence of voters and party leaders on the passage of candidates to local councils. This ratio was calculated for all oblast councils, and the material of the Kharkiv and Lviv oblast councils determined the empirical probability of changing the order of candidates in the district party lists under the influence of voters. Although supporters and lobbyists called the introduction of a new electoral system in Ukraine a model with "open" lists, the article identifies two key institutional mechanisms for significantly downplaying the role of preferential voting in the final determination of candidates. It is argued that according to the results of the personal distribution of seats among the candidates in the party lists, this model of "flexible" lists was closer to the pole of "closed" than "open" lists. Keywords: electoral systems, electoral lists, Electoral Сode of Ukraine, proportional electoral system, "flexible" lists, preferential voting, invalid ballots.

The editor of this book has brought together contributions designed to capture the essence of post-communist politics in East-Central Europe and Eurasia. Rather than on the surface structures of nominal democracies, the nineteen essays focus on the informal, often intentionally hidden, disguised and illicit understandings and arrangements that penetrate formal institutions. These phenomena often escape even the best-trained outside observers, familiar with the concepts of established democracies. Contributors to this book share the view that understanding post-communist politics is best served by a framework that builds from the ground up, proceeding from a fundamental social context. The book aims at facilitating a lexical convergence; in the absence of a robust vocabulary for describing and discussing these often highly complex informal phenomena, the authors wish to advance a new terminology of post-communist regimes. Instead of a finite dictionary, a kind of conceptual cornucopia is offered. The resulting variety reflects a larger harmony of purpose that can significantly expand the understanding the "real politics" of post-communist regimes. Countries analyzed from a variety of aspects, comparatively or as single case studies, include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine