Legislative Networks and Reforms in Post-Soviet States

How to Turn the Tide for Democracy

Marta Matrakova

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781040301012
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Democracy
• Index: Politics & International Relations

This book presents the legislative networks in charge of drafting democratic reforms as gatekeepers to the actual adoption, implementation, and internalisation of democratic norms in selected post-Soviet countries.

It demonstrates that the composition of legislative networks which draft the legal reforms in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, is controlled by powerful political actors who seek to have their preferences reflected in the reform outcomes. Furthermore, the book shows that there are limited modifications after the adoption of the first draft by these legislative networks, despite the later reform stages being the focus of the existing literature. The book's analysis of political reforms in the Rule of Law, Inter-institutional and electoral accountability in these three countries identifies the control strategies used by domestic political elite to restrain the space for democratisation, while instrumentalising the institutional framework to increase its power.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of democratisation, post-Soviet studies, East European politics, EU politics and policy, and comparative politics and international relations.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction: Why We Need to Focus on Democratic Reforms and Legislative Networks
• 2 Strategic Control of Legislative Networks: Methods and Cases
• 3 Rule of Law
• 4 Interinstitutional Accountability
• 5 Electoral Accountability
• 6 Conclusions
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index