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The Politics of Legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia

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Politics and Legitimacy in Post-Soviet Eurasia

Abstract

The Eurasian successor states of the former Soviet Union hold regular elections, but few political regimes in the region meet democratic standards. Despite the color revolutions and subsequent protest movements, which have shown that the manipulation of elections entails considerable risks for incumbents, non-democratic arrangements of political rule have emerged and persist in many of the region’s states. In fact, most of these political regimes have survived public protests and other challenges or threats originating from elite disagreements, ethnic divisions and economic crises. The causes and conditions of this robustness, however, are not yet well understood among scholars.

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Authors
  1. Martin Brusis
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institutions and Institutional Change in Postsocialism, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany

    Martin Brusis (Director, Competence Network) (Director, Competence Network)

  2. Private University of Applied Sciences, Göttingen, Germany

    Joachim Ahrens (Professor of International Economics) (Professor of International Economics)

  3. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany

    Martin Schulze Wessel (Chair for the History of East and Southeast Europe) (Chair for the History of East and Southeast Europe)

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© 2016 Martin Brusis

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Cite this chapter

Brusis, M. (2016). The Politics of Legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia. In: Brusis, M., Ahrens, J., Wessel, M.S. (eds) Politics and Legitimacy in Post-Soviet Eurasia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137489449_1

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