Re-conceptualizing post-Soviet elections: between the theatre state and ocular democracy

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F21%3A10439211" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/21:10439211 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=YjTHbBzooD" target="_blank" >https://verso.is.cuni.cz/pub/verso.fpl?fname=obd_publikace_handle&handle=YjTHbBzooD</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.24412/1815-0047-1-125-147" target="_blank" >10.24412/1815-0047-1-125-147</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Re-conceptualizing post-Soviet elections: between the theatre state and ocular democracy

Original language description

The paper suggests a re-conceptualization of post-Soviet elections beyond comparisons with the Western ideal-typical model of liberal democracy on the one hand, and their marginalization in patronal politics (Hale 2005; Wilson 2005) on the other. It exposes post-Soviet politics as an aestheticized domain, where &apos;democratic transition&apos; did not bring about political agonism in the public sphere, but political theatricality of various kinds, and analyzes that domain through the constructive functionality of elections and social imaginaries linked to them. Special attention is placed on the convergences and divergences between Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. Three threads are subsequently analyzed to expose the genealogy of post-Soviet political theatricality: 1) the Soviet &apos;no-choice elections&apos; as public acts of affirmation and displays of power; 2) elections as political festivities celebrating the &apos;king&apos; in the &apos;theatre state&apos; (Geertz 1980) that provide the &apos;population&apos; with the only available identification through and under the leader; 3) elections as an investment of trust within &apos;ocular/plebiscitary democracy&apos; (Green 2016) that create an affective bond between a leader as a media persona and his audience as a &apos;sleeping sovereign&apos; (Chatterjee 2020). The conclusion exposes elections as a battle of imaginaries, or, a game-changer when an election is about the choice of a political order, not only of a political leader or strategy. Whereas the liberal-rational imaginary remains a &apos;minority faith,&apos; the ocular/plebiscitary democracy is currently gaining ground in Ukraine and beyond.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60500 - Other Humanities and the Arts

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2021

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Topos

ISSN

1815-0047

e-ISSN

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Volume of the periodical

2021

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

BY - BELARUS

Number of pages

23

Pages from-to

125-147

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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