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Comparative Political Studies
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Electoral Protests and Democratization Beyond the Color Revolutions

Katya Kalandadze

Syracuse University, New York

Mitchell A. Orenstein

Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC

The sight of thousands of people demonstrating for clean elections and an end to corrupt postcommunist regimes led many observers to declare that the so-called color revolutions had finally brought democracy to Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. But how successful have these electoral revolutions actually been? The authors analyze all cases of electoral revolutions worldwide since 1991, distinguishing between failed and successful electoral revolutions, to conclude that even successful electoral revolutions have shown insignificant or no democratic progress in their wake. Electoral revolutions are ineffective at advancing democratization because they place too great an emphasis on elections themselves and do not address other fundamental obstacles to democratization in hybrid and authoritarian regimes. International influences have proven more successful in promoting democratization in countries of postcommunist Europe.

Key Words: democratization • electoral revolution • protest • violence • developing countries • hybrid regimes

This version was published on November 1, 2009

Comparative Political Studies, Vol. 42, No. 11, 1403-1425 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0010414009332131
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