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Parties of Power as Roadblocks to Democracy: The Cases of Ukraine and Egypt. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 81, 1 August 2005

Resende, Madalena and Kraetzschmar, Hendrik. (2005) Parties of Power as Roadblocks to Democracy: The Cases of Ukraine and Egypt. CEPS Policy Briefs No. 81, 1 August 2005. [Policy Paper]

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    Abstract

    As typified by Ukraine and Egypt, most of the semi- or non-democratic countries in the EU’s neighbourhood pretend to offer a degree of political pluralism. The standard is for a plurality of parties to run in national elections and participate in parliamentary sessions. In contrast to fully fledged democracies, however, these electoral rituals have little bearing on the composition of government and its policy output, which remains entirely dominated by the executive institutions and parties of power. This paper argues that the trademarks of these types of parties are a serious stumbling block for the development of a multi-party system based on competing ideological currents. For democracy to take hold in the EU’s eastern and southern neighbourhood of the EU, it is crucial that the logic of parties of power be replaced by one structured around autonomous and ideologically cohesive parties. Thus, both ideological and organisational party-building should be an integral part of the EU’s policy agenda to promote the spread of democracy in these regions.

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    Item Type: Policy Paper
    Subjects for non-EU documents: EU policies and themes > External relations > EU-North Africa/Maghreb
    Countries > Ukraine
    EU policies and themes > External relations > human rights & democracy initiatives
    EU policies and themes > External relations > European Neighbourhood Policy
    EU policies and themes > Policies & related activities > political affairs > political parties
    Subjects for EU documents: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Series and Periodicals: UNSPECIFIED
    EU Annual Reports: UNSPECIFIED
    Series: Series > Centre for European Policy Studies (Brussels) > CEPS Policy Briefs
    Depositing User: Phil Wilkin
    Official EU Document: No
    Language: English
    Date Deposited: 15 Apr 2007
    Page Range: p. 7
    Last Modified: 15 Feb 2011 17:43
    URI: http://aei.pitt.edu/id/eprint/6624

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