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Democracy without Engagement?
Understanding Political Participation in Post-Communist Romania
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2022
Summary
How do post-communist citizens engage in the new democracies of Eastern Europe after decades of repressive control exerted by the communist regimes? Are people’s involvement in post-communist politics influenced by generic socioeconomic and attitudinal traits, or is it primarily driven by selective mobilization opportunities provided by social networks and organizations? Democracy without Engagement?: Understanding Political Participation in Post-Communist Romania presents a broad framework for conceptualizing and measuring citizen participation and applies it to Romania as a typical post-communist democracy illustrating the low rates of political activism in the region. Separate chapters examine post-communist citizens’ participation in elections, attempts to influence authorities beyond voting, cognitive engagement in politics, and direct involvement in local decision-making. Using large-N statistical analyses, the author argues that individuals’ socioeconomic and attitudinal characteristics have relatively weak influences on citizen participation in the post-communist context. Instead, various organizations and social networks act as politically recruiting and mobilizing agents, driving citizen participation into political actions that can challenge or strengthen democracy. In the absence of a well-developed participatory political culture that would enable citizens to act autonomously in the political sphere, the persistence of post-communist democracies largely depends on the goals and methods pursued by these mobilizing agents.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2022
ISBN-Print
978-1-4985-3524-3
ISBN-Online
978-1-4985-3525-0
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
238
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
List of Tables No access
List of Figures No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 14
1: Theories of Democracy and Political Participation No access Pages 15 - 28
2: Contextualizing Political Participation in Romania after 1989 No access Pages 29 - 48
3: The Dynamics of Electoral Participation and Types of Voters No access Pages 49 - 90
4: Participation as Attempts to Influence Public Authorities No access Pages 91 - 126
5: Cognitive Political Engagement No access Pages 127 - 152
6: Participation in Local Decision Making No access Pages 153 - 182
7: Searching for “Another Democracy”? No access Pages 183 - 196
