Democracy, Autocracy, and Paternal Presidentialism in Post-Soviet States

Abstract

Research on democratization in post-soviet States has revealed very different transition paths: from a considerably successful adoption of the rules and principles of democratic states then back toward various forms of authoritarian, and /or the development of hybrid regimes. These political events have paved the way to different terms to describe the regime change in post-communist countries such as “delegated democracy”, “sovereign democracy”, “managed democracy”, “super-presidential Republic”, “paternal presidentialism”, “elected monarchism”, “Putinism”, “Caeser’s rule” (Shlapentokh 2007) . The aim of this panel is to focus on the context and ways in which the personal characteristics of Presidents who portray themselves as “paternal protectors looking after his people” – God, King, father appeal - play a crucial role in shaping different institutional features of “presidentialism” (O’Donnell 1994). The panel will adopt a comparative approach, aiming to explore political, geopolitical, economic , cultural and social patterns of paternal presidentialism in the Southern, Eastern and Western post-Soviet States as well as in the Russian Federation. The discussion will be focused on a few grouping topics rather than on examining mainly institutional settings. These topics are: 1) Transformations of political systems and regime cycle; 2) Presidents’ role in the regime change; 3) social, economic, geopolitical determinants for the emergence of paternal presidentialism; 4) revisited conceptualization of the term “patrimonial”; 5) cultural and traditional elements which influence the emergence of patrimonial presidents.