Teaching Comparative

Sobchack, Political Idol, Corruption, and Oil

A well-known NGO confirms what the media have been reporting about the state of democracy in Russia (and it's southern neighbors). Is this a detour in the democratization process? Is democratization a real trend? If a free response question asked your students about democratization in Russia, how would they respond?

Here's a link to the Freedom House press release about this report.

Nations in Transit, published annually by Freedom House, is a comprehensive, comparative, multidimensional study focusing on 29 countries and administrative areas from Central Europe to Eurasia.

The Nations in Transit 2006 report can be accessed as a set of .pdf documents (one for each country). Russia is the only AP country surveyed.

This might be best as background for teachers. Although, students could evalulate news stories about events and policy changes in Russia to determine whether the report's contentions seem accurate.

From the RFE/RL article:

Eurasia: Report Suggests Democracy In Decline

"PRAGUE, June 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- The U.S. pro-democracy NGO Freedom House has issued a report saying that energy-rich countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus, as well as Russia, are declining in their democratic performance, even as their resources become strategically more important.

"The report, called "Nations In Transit 2006," focuses on Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Russia, countries that are growing economically based on energy resources.

"But the report argues that they are all plagued by weak institutions, deteriorating standards of governance, worsening media and judicial freedoms, and rising corruption...

"To measure the rise or decline of democratic standards in a given country, Freedom House has developed a technique for evaluating performance in specific areas, such as how free the media and judiciary are, and how free and fair elections are. On this scale, a score of one indicates a consolidated democracy, and a score of seven -- the lowest -- represents a consolidated authoritarian regime...

"Russian Democracy In Decline

"Turning to Russia, "Nations In Transit 2006" grants Russia... [a score of] 5.75 ... a significant drop (0.14 points) in one year, caused largely by President Vladimir Putin's centralization of control over political life, which runs counter to previous democratic developments in Russia.

"Ratings fell in a range of categories: national governance, the electoral process, corruption, and civil society. Evenson describes Russia as worrying.

"'We are quite concerned about Russia, in that what we are seeing of course is energy that is continuing to improve the economic situation, but the political institutions are becoming more and more fragile,' she said...

"The report says there has been an 'onslaught' against media freedoms, and the 'near obliteration' of nongovernmental organizations. There has also been harassment of the opposition and legal moves making it more difficult to monitor elections independently.

"Money Buys Happiness -- For Dictators

"So why are democratic standards declining at a time when the economic situation is improving in a number of regions?

"'The more money a government has, the easier for it to take on authoritarian tendencies and not have its people particularly complain,' Evenson says. 'And in Russia... you still have a standard of living which is growing, so expectations of the population have been met, at least for the short term.'

"But she cautions that if wealth is progressively concentrated into the hands of elites, then this social pact could come under pressure."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:09 AM