Constraining Elites in Russia and Indonesia

Political Participation and Regime Survival

Danielle N. Lussier

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN:
  9781107084377
• eBook ISBN:
  9781316028858
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This is a thought-provoking analysis on why democracy succeeds in some countries but not others, comparing the post-transition experiences of two cases of contemporary democratisation: Russia and Indonesia. Following authoritarian regimes, democracy eroded in Russia but flourished in Indonesia - so confounding dominant theories of democratisation that predicted the opposite outcomes based on their levels of socioeconomic development and histories of statehood. Identifying key behaviours and patterns of political participation as a factor, Lussier interweaves ethnographic interview and quantitative public opinion data to expand our understanding on how mass political participation contributes to a democracy's survival. The integration of both micro- and macro-level data in a single study is one of this project's most significant contributions, and will enhance its appeal to both researchers and instructors.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Table of contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgments
• Note about referencing interview subjects
• Notes on russian and indonesian language
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Extending Democratization Theory
• 3 Elite-Constraining Participation and Democracy’s Survival
• 4 Testing the Model
• 5 Tocqueville Revisited
• 6 Political Efficacy and “Throwing the Rascals Out”
• 7 Political Trust and Regime Legitimacy
• 8 Conclusion
• References
• Index