Participation and Democracy: Dynamics, Causes ... - Jacobs University

However, Figure 5-9 reveals that this has not been the case for all post-communist
societies, in particular not for most of the new democracies in Central Europe. A decade
after the transition to democracy, in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia and Poland
even more people participate in demonstrations, join boycotts or sign petitions than in the
early 1990ies.
Figure 5-9: Elite-Challenging Activities in Ex-Communist Societies, in %,
WVS/EVS
70
60
Czech Republic
Slovakia
50
40
Slovenia
30
Poland
20
10
Hungary
Bulgaria
0
1990 1999
Elite-challenging participation in Hungary has slightly declined between 1990 and 1999
from an already low level. Among the ex-communist countries in Central and Eastern
Europe outside the Soviet Union, Bulgaria shows the largest drop in these activities (data
for Romania 1990 are not available).
Expanding the view to post-communist societies under Soviet rule, the expected posthoneymoon
decline in elite-challenging activities now becomes visible (see Figure 5-10).
The decline in the decade after the collapse of communist rule has most strongly affected
the new Baltic democracies, but also those countries that have not successfully
transformed into full-fledged democracies but that developed into a gray-zone democracy
with serious deficiencies (Russia) or that have replaced one authoritarian system with
another one (Belarus).
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