Market Forces, Media Assistance and Democratization

The Political Success of Russia-Belarus Relations: Insulating Minsk from a Color Revolution

This article explores how the Russia-Belarus relationship has countered external forces that have been shown to promote democratization. It seeks to answer the following questions: According to the democratization literature, what external factors make democratization more likely? How have RussiaBelarus ties countered these factors? And, how best can the United States and the European Union pro...

Internal Forces in Piles “Under External Forces and Earthquake in Homogeneous and Nonhomogeneous Media”

The #YoSoy132 movement and the struggle for media democratization in Mexico

In this article, we analyze through a political economy of communication lens the historical and political contexts in which the #YoSoy132 movement emerged, the Mexican media concentration system, and the possibilities offered by social media to young people, situating the issue of media democratization at the centre of the #YoSoy132 struggle. Drawing on two group and four individual interviews...

New Social Media and (Electronic) Democratization in East and Southeast Asia Malaysia and China Compared

This essay explores the impact of the Internet and new social media in China and Malaysia. In particular, it examines the extent to which the tools and platforms of new information communication technology have democratizing effects in two very different types of illiberal regime. Democratization here is defined not as a simple process of political liberalization but instead as a dynamic proces...

Electoral Democracy or Electoral Clanism? Russian Democratization and Theories of Transition

t seems clear that Russia’s attempts at democratization and Westernization will not meet the expectations of Russia’s democratic reformers. As happened in previous eras of Westernization, only some elements of Western liberal democracy have taken root in Russian soil, the most important of them being competitive elections. Other fundamental elements of liberalism have not only failed to flouris...