Ingredients of a Resilient Democracy
By Valerie Bunce
Valerie Bunce, professor of government and Aaron Binenkorb Chair of International Studies at Cornell University, is an expert on democracy and authoritarian rule in post-communist Europe and Eurasia. She is co-editor of Democracy and Authoritarianism in the Postcommunist World (2009).
Elections in a healthy democracy hold governments accountable to the governed and facilitate peaceful transfers of power.
Democratic elections require more than the casting and counting of ballots. In a healthy democracy, elections hold governments accountable to the governed. This happens when:
.. Citizens are free to select their political representatives.
.. Citizens can choose among candidates seeking their support.
.. Officeholders must be re-elected to retain their positions after a specified interval. They face regular electoral verdicts on their performance and risk losing power at the ballot box.
Competitive elections promote uncertainty among political aspirants and thus encourage their responsiveness to citizens.
Elections will only produce accountability when they are regularly held and when they are free and fair. In many new democracies in sub-Saharan Africa and post-communist Eurasia, electoral competition has not ensured accountability. Sometimes this is because electoral procedures are irregular, rather than transparent and in full conformity with constitutional guidelines. In some nations, incumbents dominate the political playing field by dispensing patronage to established and potential supporters, or they manufacture "fake" oppositions and harass their "real" opposition. Moreover, seemingly democratic regimes can prolong their hold on power by controlling voter registration, voter turnout, and vote tabulation.
The gap between simulation and actual democratic practice narrows when opposition parties and candidates run vigorous campaigns. These mobilize citizens and civil society groups, which in turn organize to register voters, get out the vote, and monitor elections. This is precisely what happened in the pivotal elections that took place in Slovakia in 1998, Croatia and Serbia in 2000, Georgia in 2003, and Ukraine in 2004. In each case, citizens employed democratic methods, including voting and protests, to force authoritarian incumbents or their anointed successors to admit defeat.
Transitions challenge any political system. Healthy democracies handle the dilemma smoothly and peacefully. Clean elections and peaceful transitions demonstrate that today's losers might be tomorrow's winners, and vice versa. Winners and their supporters must remain responsive to the opinions of their rivals, keeping an eye on the next election cycle. Losers and their advocates can focus on present and future possibilities, rather than past resentments. Confident that the rules can work for them next time, they more easily accept the existing political order and are less likely to seek a democratic government's violent overturn.
Every transition to new leadership implies change, and hence a challenge to political stability. Democracies minimize this challenge by holding regular and competitive elections that open genuine opportunities for emerging new leaders and through transparent power transfers that help winners and losers accept their fates. However, democracies differ in how they weigh the benefits of stability against the need for political dynamism and change, and even against the voters' desire to return the same candidate to office over and over again. For example, in the United States, Russia, Armenia, and more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, there are constitutional limits on how long leaders can serve. These limits guard against autocracy by preventing any one individual from holding power too long, but also deprive citizens of the opportunity to vote for a "termed-out" candidate.
Elections therefore serve two vital functions in a democratic order. They hold government accountable to the governed, and they facilitate peaceful transfers of political power. These two effects, in turn, legitimize democracy. Citizens of a healthy democracy view representative government as the "only way" to conduct politics.
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