Countering Authoritarian States through Public Campaigns: A post-Soviet perspective

Abstract

This paper contributes to growing research about the emergence of the rule of law, or horizontal accountability, still the key difference between Western institutionalized democracies and the new democracies in both Latin America and post-communist Eurasia. Researchers in Latin America have recently theorized a possible mechanism explaining the strengthening of horizontal accountability through public campaigning by civic associations aimed at activating institutions of horizontal accountability. By reviewing the recent public campaigns of various associations in a post-Soviet country, Ukraine, this paper “turns the lens” of such research by focusing less on the characteristics of the civil society actors mobilizing to bring about accountability, and more on the state itself. It argues that the prospects for horizontal accountability have to be judged against a wide range of containment measures that states attempt in order to de-mobilize public opposition to their policies.