Building democratic institutions: East and West Lecturer: A. Dimitrova

Résumé du document

The accession in May 2004 of eight countries from Eastern Europe to the European Union and the future membership of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 tends to show the importance, for these post-communist states, to find a new order and to gain more stability and security. Indeed, the end of the Cold War liberates Eastern and Central Europe from communism, but the road to efficient democracy is still long. Membership of the European Union or NATO seems to be a fundamental element for the stabilization process. Nonetheless, external aid (money, settlement of non-governmental organisations…) is not enough and some scholars believe in a more bottom-up way to build democracy. Such is the case with Robert Putnam, who underlined in his works the importance of a civil community (or social capital) capable of developing and strengthening institutions and consequently of building democracy. After explaining the theory of Putnam more in depth, we will discuss if he is right in saying that a sufficient stock of social capital is necessary for the success of democracy when it applies to Eastern Europe.

Extraits

[...] Weller, ‘What does social capital add to democratic values', Centre for the Study of Public Policy, No pp.4-5 Civic attitudes for Rose are being negative about the former communist regime and being aware of the gains in freedom due to the new regime. Definition of social capital in R. D. Putnam, Democracies in Flux : the Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, (Oxford, University Press, 2002), p.3 N. Petro, ‘Creating Social Capital in Russia: The Novgorod Model', World Development, No.29(2),pp. 229-244 D. [...]

[...] Bibliography Books and journals: Anderson, Robert, Fish, Steven, Hanson, Stephen and Roeder, Philip, Postcommunism and the theory of democracy, (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2001) Badescu, G., Uslaner, E., Social Capital and the Transition to Democracy (London, Routledge, 2003) Himka, John-Paul, ‘Issues, Outcome and Prospects: The Ukrainian Events', Against the Current, Vol.10, No Mihaylova, Dimitrina Social Capital in Central and Eastern Europe: a critical assessment and literature review (Center for Policy Studies, Central European University, 2004) available at http:// /eps/dev/papers/0511/0511001.pdf Nichols, Thomas, ‘Russian democracy and social capital' Social Science Information, Vol No.4, p.631 Paxton, Pamela ‘Social Capital and Democracy: an interdependent relationship', American Sociological Review, Vol Petro, Nicolai ‘Creating Social Capital in Russia: The Novgorod Model', World Development, No.29(2) Putnam, Robert D., Making democracy work : Civic traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1993) Putnam Robert D., Democracies in Flux : the Evolution of Social Capital in Contemporary Society, (Oxford, University Press, 2002) Rose, Richard and Mishler, William, ‘Trust in untrustworthy institutions: culture and institutional performance in post-communist societies', Centre for the Study of Public Policy, No Rose, Richard and Weller, Craig, ‘What does social capital add to democratic values', Centre for the Study of Public Policy, No Websites: Boix, Carles and Posner, Daniel N., Making Social Capital Work: A Review of Robert Putnam's Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Harvard University, 1996): http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/papers/96-04.pdf Himka, John-Paul, Issues, Outcome and Prospects: The Ukrainian Events, available at: http://www.solidarity-us.org/node/65 Kolybashkina, Nina and Temnenko, Ksenia, Social Capital and Civil Society in the Making of Democracy in the Ukraine: a case-study of Orange Revolution: http://www.emes.net/fileadmin/emes/PDF_files/ISTR_EMES_Paris/PS_3/PS3_S4/PS3 4d_ISTR-EMES_Koly_Temn.pdf Levin, M.A., The Importance of Civic Community for Effective Democracy (1997): http://www.la.utexas.edu/chenry/civil/archives97/csspapers/0011.html R.D. Putnam, Making democracy work : Civic traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1993) Even if for some authors Putnam talked about institutional performance and not democracy R.D. Putnam, Making democracy work : Civic traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, 1993) p.157 R.D. [...]

[...] Ukrainians learnt to collaborate to reach their ideals, realized that their opinions can be heard, and citizens would then logically trust eachother and institutions more. We have seen that the link between democracy and social capital is not clear. If in some cases such as Ukraine the solidarity between citizens had been strong to reject undemocratic practices and consequently to strengthen a weak democracy, in Russia for instance such behaviour is rare (except, of course, in Novgorod). In fact, context really matters. [...]

[...] Building democratic institutions: East and West Lecturer: A. Dimitrova A sufficient stock of “social capital” has often been considered to be a necessary condition for the success of liberal democracy. How does this claim apply to Eastern Europe? The accession in May 2004 of eight countries from Eastern Europe to the European Union and the future membership of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007 tends to show the importance for these post-communist states to find a new order and to gain more stability and security. [...]

[...] He explained that historical contexts build (or do not build) the networks of associations that consequently improve the level of trust between people. This path-dependency notion made the author conclude that democracy is likely to form only in specific areas and if the level of social capital had been low during the history of a society, it will not easily change and democracy will be then more difficult to implement. Thus Putnam is rather pessimistic about the former Communist states that weak civic traditions before the advent of Communism, and totalitarian rule abused even that limited stock of social capital”, so “Amoral familism, clientelism, lawlessness, ineffective government, and economic stagnation seems likelier than successful democratization and economic development”[7]. [...]