Social Capital and Political Support for Democracy and Autocracy in Moldova
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Aberdeen
Department Name: Sch of Social Science
Abstract
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Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Christian Haerpfer (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Christian Haerpfer (author)
(1900)
Political support for democracy in Moldova
Haerpfer C
(2008)
Support for Democracy and Autocracy in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, 1992-2002
in International Political Science Review
Inglehart
(2009)
Democratization
| Description | This study is a national survey research project to monitor and compare the influence of social capital on support for democracy and autocracy among the mass public of Moldova. Citizens of post-Soviet countries had lifelong experience with undemocratic rule prior to the break-up of the Soviet empire. The main database of this project is an academic survey with 2,000 personal interviews representing a sample of the adult population of Moldova, 18 years of age and older. This sample has been drawn on a proportionate-to-population basis, stratified by region, town-size and urban-rural differences. The organisation conducting the survey was the Independent Sociological Service 'Opinia'. Fieldwork took place between 17th November 2007 and 30th December 2007. The optimal path of democratization in post-communist Europe is that from a new democracy towards a 'consolidated democracy'. A new democracy can be described as consolidated, when it fulfils the criteria for a complete or liberal democracy. In order to become a member in the exclusive 'club' of liberal or full democracies, a new democracy has to have the rule of law, a clear separation of powers, a vibrant civil society independent from the state, a democratic constitution and associated constitutionalism, pluralism of political actors and institutions, full respect of human and political rights and freedom of media and political association. In addition to these criteria, a new democracy has to fulfil the minimum criterion of free, fair, competitive multiparty elections as well as a successful consolidation of its political and legal institutions. Finally, a clear absolute majority of the citizens have to support democratic rules and principles as the 'only game in town'. The most successful examples of democratization are Slovenia and Hungary. Other examples of successful transformations of a communist political system into a consolidated democracy are the neighbouring countries Poland and Lithuania, which show also excellent ratings regarding their democratic performance and structures. The same is true for Czech Republic and Slovakia, which are consolidated democracies regarding political rights and civil liberties. The next group of consolidated democracies could be located on the western part of the Black Sea: Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova are consolidated democracies in 2006, but have joined the top group of post-communist democracies only very recently after difficult processes of political transformations since 1990 in the cases of Bulgaria and Romania and since 1992 in the case of Moldova. *The first hypothesis that we will find an absolute majority of the population in Moldova, which is supporting democracy as ideal form of government has been confirmed.*The second hypothesis that this diffuse support of democratic principles will be higher than support for the current political regime in Moldova has been verified too. *The third hypothesis that normative support for democracy will be higher than support for the incumbent national government in Moldova has also been confirmed. *Democracy as ideal form of political regime is supported by an absolute majority of citizens in Moldova, but the big caveat arising from this study is that we found an absolute majority of the population, which are neither supporting the current regime nor the current national government. The same absolute majority of the electorate are also showing distrust in all new political institutions.One scientific impact is that this ESRC project has achieved the creation and development of new indicators of social and political capital, which will be used in a new research programme on 'Health in Times of Transition'. Dr Haerpfer is PI of this new 3-year-research programme of the European Union (FP 7), which will commence in April 2009, and will use these newly developed survey instruments for a 10-nation study in Moldova, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan and Tajikistan within that research project with 13 partners from 12 countries and a budget of € 3,000.000. Another impact of the project refers to capacity building in the Republic of Moldova, which is one of the poorest countries in Europe. This ESRC project has enabled the creation and implementation of the 'Centre for Survey Methodology (=CSM) in Chisinau, the capital city of Moldova. On the basis of the excellent performance of CSM within this ESRC project, the Centre for Survey Methodology in Moldova has been nominated for assistance and support in survey methodology for the forthcoming 6th Wave of the World Values Surveys. The Centre for Survey Methodology has been invited as survey co-ordinator for the EU-project on 'Health in Times of Transition' and will be in charge of a 10-nation-survey between 2009 and 2011. From an empirical perspective, this project provides clear and cross-national evidence that all eight analysed political regimes in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent in general and in Moldova in particular have not yet concluded their political transformations and electoral revolutions as far as the micro-level of their citizens and electorates is concerned. The future behaviour of political elites, political actors, political institutions, civil societies and the mass publics will determine the final political structure of these post-Soviet countries along the broad spectrum between democracy and autocracy. |