210091 SE BAK15: East European Studies (2022S)

The seminar language is German. However, if necessary, individual presentations and seminar papers can be in English as well.

The seminar deals with systems of rule in the post-Soviet space from a comparative perspective. In the first step, we will introduce concepts and methods of analysis in order to categorize and evaluate different forms of rule. In the second step, we will empirically analyse the systems of rule of selected post-Soviet states. We will not only compare the post-Soviet states among each other, but also draw comparisons to Central Eastern Europe.

Even more than in Central Eastern Europe, the "third wave of democratization" did not result in stable or functioning democracies in the successor states of the Soviet Union. We can rather find "hybrid regimes" with conflict-laden and/or contradictory (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan) transition processes. Some countries have been sliding back to autocracy (Russia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan). In other countries, transformation processes have totally failed. (Turkmenistan, Belarus). Soviet legacy, i.e., the countries' structural heritage dating back to the Soviet Union, the interests of post-Soviet elites and Moscow's influence in the former sphere of rule ("Near Abroad") prove to be decisive for this. In the oil- and gas-rich countries of the region, high resource revenues further favor the stabilization of authoritarian systems of rule.