Authoritarian Backlash: Russian Resistance to Democratization in the Former Soviet UnionAuthoritarian Russia has adopted five strategies to preserve the Kremlin's political power: insulate, bolster, subvert, redefine and coordinate. Thomas Ambrosio examines each of these in turn, all of which seek to counter or undermine regional democratic trends both at home and throughout the former Soviet Union. Policies such as these are of great concern to the growing literature on how autocratic regimes are becoming more active in their resistance to democracy. Through detailed case studies of each strategy, this book makes significant contributions to our understandings of Russian domestic and foreign policies, democratization theory and the policy challenges associated with democracy promotion. |
Contents
1 The Authoritarian Backlash Against Democracy | 1 |
2 The External Promotion of Democracy and Authoritarianism | 11 |
An Overview | 27 |
Shielding Russia from External Democracy Promotion | 45 |
Rhetorical Defenses Against External Criticism | 69 |
Russian Support for Authoritarianism in Belarus | 105 |
Undermining Democracy in Georgia and Ukraine | 131 |
Working with Others to Resist Democratization | 159 |
9 The Russian 20072008 Election Cycle | 185 |
10 The Future of Democracy and the Challenge of Authoritarianism | 201 |
Appendix Freedom House Ratings of the Former Soviet Union 19912007 | 217 |
| 221 | |
| 233 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accessed 11 July Agence France Presse anti-regime April Associated Press authoritarian authoritarian regimes authoritarian resistance autocratic Baltic BBCMIR BBCWM Belarus Belarus’s Belarusian chapter color revolutions Council of Europe countries country’s December defend democracy democracy promotion domestic Duma economic election monitoring ensure Estonia example Foreign Minister foreign policy former soviet union Georgia Georgia and ukraine government’s human rights January June Kommersant kremlin kyrgyzstan Latvia Lavrov leaders legitimacy liberal lukashenko regime March Medvedev membership military Moreover Moscow nashi nAto nGos norms november october Online opposition orange revolution OSCE Papers Say parliamentary election political system president pro-democracy Putin regime change regional democratic trends reproduced as Russian rhetoric rose revolution Russian Foreign russian government Russian officials russian political Secretary-General Zhang Deguang seen Shanghai Cooperation Organisation sovereign democracy stability statement Surkov TASS threat tulip revolution Ukraine’s ukrainian undermine united russia utin utin’s Uzbekistan Vladimir vote West Western Yeltsin youth movements Zhang Deguang