Belarus: A Century-Long Struggle for Democracy - Essay Sample

Introduction

Belarus is a country found in eastern Europe that is bordered by Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, and Poland. The country began being an authoritarian police state in the 1900s after the elections were openly rigged, and its citizens' civil liberties were suppressed. After that, there have been multiple failures of democratic forces attempting to bring back the country to restoration. There have been variations in democracy impediments courtesy of internal and external factors during the three consecutive transition periods that have been witnessed in 2001, 2006, and 2010 presidential election.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The decline in the country's democracy is attributed to partially the relationship that exists between Russia and Belarus that has is associated with autocracy in Belarus. As such, this has become a hindrance to democratic transition. According to Belarus president, Lukashenka, and his personal interests, he advocates for reciprocating loyalty for both Russian and Belarus governments and preserving the power and Russian geopolitical interests which have similarly impeded democratic transition in the country.

Belarus experienced democracy until the presidential elections in 1994 that saw the president-elect of that year openly rig elections to head the country. Before 1994, the county had optimal democratic freedom. The country's electoral institutions always conducted free and fair elections of all aspects without dictatorship from the government. According to the constitution of the country, the head of the nation still ruled for a five-year term for a maximum of two terms. The president is also aligned to performing certain activities courtesy of the powers bestowed to him by the citizens. However, the fall of democracy witnesses a lot of power concentrated in the hands of the president, where he dictates almost everything.

Therefore, people enjoyed all the freedoms and practiced all their rights. The country's quality has changed over time, with the opposition of the country having minimal chances of ascending to power each election year. The independence of the judicial system has been compromised where it cannot nullify rigged elections. There is a lack of political culture and the absence of national elites coupled with national self-identification of citizens that is weak.

Symptoms of Erosion

The country began to backslide after Belarus elected Lukashenka as its president in 1994. The president went ahead to concentrate his political power by adopting a dictatorship style of leading. As a president, he resisted and became reluctant to reforms a non-functional communist-era economy and made it worse by denying his citizens the fundamental rights and freedoms. As the neighboring states transitioned to liberal markets and international organizations to improve their economies, the president was reluctant, resulting in the deterioration of the country's political environment. The condition was unbearable until two years later, when the country was declared by the Freedom House courtesy of the surveys done not to be a free state. Belarus enters 2010 with archaic political and economic systems that require immediate transformation (Jakli et al., 273). Thus, the country's democratic decline has survived a decade and a half under the unlimited dictatorship and absolute power of Lukashenka. In my country, democratic backsliding is associated with deprivation of peoples' rights and freedom by the government. The government does not consider the fundamental rights of the citizens it is supposed to serve. Citizens are not involved in the political aspects of the country. There is only one ruling party which curtails the freedom of opposition leaders.

Explaining the Decline

With democracy, a country can achieve a lot. The people will live in harmony as the government contributes to their well-being and co-existence. However, some factors contribute to the decline in the quality of democracy exercised in a country. Some of these factors include economic inequality and social discontent. Economic inequality is associated with cases such as the unequal distribution of national resources and a high rate of unemployment. Such countries always advance towards an authoritarian model since people are still supported by the government to provide essential resources. Such people are lowly educated and do not have a group of elites to lead them (Luhrmann & Rooney, 17). Dissatisfaction leads to high levels of inequality. Increased dependency on the national government that has its powers concentrated on the president paves the way for him to dictate everything.

Another factor is personalism. Here, the head of the nation consolidates and concentrates all the power around him. Such presidents are associated with the dominance of the ruling party; hence they undermine horizontal accountability. Thus, they will break the rules and the constitutions in pursuit of their interests instead of taking into consideration the large population of those they are supposed to lead. They will endorse changes in the constitution, come up with referendums, and implement them to suit their desires. A good example is the addition of ruling years besides those in the constitution. There is also a tendency for the leaders to change multi-party into a single ruling party so that they remain in power for a long time to perpetuate their wicked ways.

Problems Associated with Declining Democracy

A declining state of democracy is connected to various problems that face the citizens of a country. For instance, there will be low informed voters and media bias in such a state. Low information emanates from the fact that citizens are only aware of the ruling party, and whoever controls it will become the president. Therefore, with even the presence of multi-party policies, citizens will be ignorant about the election information. There is also media bias as what will be broadcasted is controlled by the government. It is their interests that will be spread to the people via the media and not what is happening in reality. Media sensitization bias is usually evident during elections where wrong figures are announced to the public.

Power is usually concentrated on the president. As such, citizens lack the pollical ability or an easy way to mobilize themselves to address issues affecting the country. Subjects are threatened to deal with critical political issues, and even some are sued and detained by the government in the name of incitement (Korosteleva, 684). It is also difficult to communicate with elected representatives in the sense that communication is vertical and one way. It is the people who are assumed to carry out the will of the leaders and not the leaders to serve the citizens. Therefore, citizens are forced to listen to the leaders without question.

Some of the theories explaining the democratic decline in countries include political leadership, whereby the actions of political leaders are believed to significantly contribute to deprivation of democracy since their strategies and behaviors unconstraint them. Political culture theory, on the other hand, considers the attitudes, beliefs, and practices that people have subscribed to, dividing their socially sanctioned freedoms and rights. Political institutions theory has also been substantially featured in many countries. The government can be identified to be a target headed by leaders that human constraint actions (Lust & Waldner, 11). The above theory considers the ability of the government to govern people, which leads to overdependency. Hence, it begins to suppress it is leading, resulting in a decline in democracy.

Work Cited

Jakli, Laura, M. Steven Fish, and Jason Wittenberg. "A decade of democratic decline and stagnation." Democratization (2018): 268-284. http://www.jasonwittenberg.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/JFW-Chap18-Uncorr-Page-Proofs.pdf

Korosteleva, Elena A. "The European Union and Belarus: democracy promotion by technocratic means?." Democratization 23.4 (2016): 678-698. https://kar.kent.ac.uk/50244/7/The%20EU%20and%20Belarus.%20author%3D0027s%20version.pdf

Lührmann, Anna, and Bryan Rooney. "Autocratization by Decree: States of Emergency and Democratic Decline." V-Dem Working Paper 85 (2020). 1-20 https://gupea.ub.gu.se/bitstream/2077/64134/1/gupea_2077_64134_1.pdf

Lust, Ellen, and David Waldner. "Unwelcome change: understanding, evaluating, and extending theories of democratic backsliding." US Agency for International Development 11 (2015). 1-89 https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PBAAD635.pdf