Suchergebnisse

"The 1917 uprising of Russian workers and peasants against the centuries-old Tsarist autocracy reverberated across the world. This meticulously assembled and expertly-translated collection of documents from the Petrograd Socialist movement provides a riveting firsthand glimpse into the urgent revolutionary moment as it unfolds". -- publisher

"Detailed critique of the 1993 Constitution and the Constitutional Congress that formulated it, emphasizing its tendencies toward autocracy and a reconcentration of presidential power. Largely a compilation of the authors' previously published newspaper, news magazine, and academic journal accounts"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 57

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgment / Spearman, Diana -- Introduction -- I The Rise of Dictators -- II The Psychological Background -- III The Psychological Background and the Theory of Autocracy in European Political Thought -- IV Authoritarian Tendencies in Democracy -- V The Problems of Autocratic Government -- VI Dictatorial Economics -- VII Is Modern Dictatorship Successful? -- Index

The highlight of Maithripala Sirisena's presidency came in its very beginning when he ended a decade of autocracy by restoring democracy. And when rivalry with his own prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, devolved into a constitutional crisis, Sirisena was forced to abide by the democratic norms he had restored.

Intro -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- A Note on Nomenclature -- Why This Book Was Written -- Part One: Aristocratic Modernisation Its Rise and Fall -- I. The English and American Revolutions Led to Democracy -- II. But What About the French Revolution? Was It Necessary for Democracy? -- III. Liberal Democratic Ideology Foiled: The Efficacy of Modernising Aristocratic Autocracy in Germany -- IV. Marx Belied: Proletarianisation Reinforces Aristocratic Autocracy -- V. Louis Napoleon, Scorned By Marx, Becomes a Successful Modernising Autocrat -- VI. Bismarck Learns from Revolutionaries How To Prevent Revolution -- VII. Tsarist Russia: Promising Aristocratic Modernisation, Albeit Aborted -- VIII. How the Free-market Extremism of Democrats Gave Germany to Hitler -- IX. Communism Saved Capitalist Democracy from Fascism and Helped to Reform Capitalism -- Part Two: The World After Aristocratic Modernisation -- X. The New Capitalism Consolidates -- XI. Darwinian Capitalism: The Second Coming -- Epilogue: Unleashing Full-blooded Capitalism Leads to the Undermining of Democracy -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- Back Cover.

The article examines the Academist movement between 1900 and 1914 – the student branches of a number of right-wing groups that emerged in the Russian Empire between 1900 and 1905 and endured throughout the late imperial period. It will argue that these groups arose separately from the Russian autocracy, and formed part of an independent, 'right-wing' approach to the problems facing Russian society in the late imperial period. It is particularly concerned with the idea, widely present on the right, that the Russian present was in a period of crisis and a more drastic approach to moral and spiritual renewal was needed. It will consider the nature of the Academists' conceptions of moral education, spiritual renewal of society, and also their violence, anti-Semitism and emergence of an ethno-populist politics. The contention is that the emergence of an independent right-wing movement contributed to the wider instability in the Russian autocracy in the late imperial period.

In this paper, we address the question of whether official development assistance promotes gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa region by examining the effects of aid to Women's Equality Organizations and Institutions on women's political empowerment, measured by the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. We use panel data (covering the period 2002-10) from 13 Middle East and North African countries and control for several relevant variables, including secondary school enrolments, adult fertility rates, autocracy, and official development assistance targeting family planning and reproductive health. The econometric results suggest that official development assistance . to women' equality organizations and institutions is effective in increasing women's political empowerment. We find that autocracy exerts a negative influence on women's political empowerment. In addition, higher adolescent fertility rates are found to be associated with smaller proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments. We comment on the policy implications of the main findings.

Russia and China are assumed to challenge democratization and to promote autocracy. In a first step, we analyze Central Asia as the most-likely case, considering both Russia and China as relevant external actors. We develop a concept for our analysis based on the different strategies of Russia (dominance) and China (doing-business) towards the region and present the results of a qualitative study of the main dimensions of autocracy promotion with respect to regional and bilateral schemes. In a second step, we extend a previous framework (Melnykovska and Schweickert 2011) and provide econometric evidence based on a panel of post-socialist countries. We show that bilateral schems are (still) more relevant for external influences in Central Asia and that (unintentionally) China's doing-business approach may in fact promote institutional change. Arguably, democratization should not be a precondition for cooperation as in European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) but rather be promoted by sweeping economic cooperation incentives.

Abstract.  Since 1945, newly independent states have differed from longer lived states in their greater risk of violent conflict and more challenging environment for democratisation. The authors of this article theorise that certain economic, demographic, violence‐related and external factors should affect the regime type (level of democracy versus autocracy) in newly independent states. Examining exclusively newly independent states that have undergone major political transitions allows one to determine factors favouring democracy over autocracy under such volatile circumstances. The authors test several hypotheses, using cross‐sectional and cross‐sectional time‐series analyses, and find that economic development elevates the level of democracy in new states. Cultural heterogeneity has no effect, but external factors play an important role. Genocide and politicide reduce democracy, while civil wars have the opposite effect. These findings prove robust to alternative measurements of the dependent variable and alternative model specifications.

This article attempts to discuss the new technologies introduced in Russian state earlier in the state formation. In the second half of the last century, a well-defined and stable historiographical tradition was formed, proceeding from the fact that the early-modern Russian state was centralized, unified in administrative and institutional aspects. However, recently this fact has been criticized. In this article the authors propose to look at the essence of the early-modern Russian state from the inside. In their opinion, the Russian state of this time was undecentralized. Developing in an evolutionary way about relying on antiquity, it preserved many relics of the past. They imposed certain restrictions on the supreme power, preventing the buildup of power infrastructure. Weak institutionally, early modern Russian state was forced to rely on the support of society. As a result, the authors summarize their reasoning, the processes of centralization in Russia were still far from complete by the end of the early New Age.