Democratisation and Cultural Differences in the Former Soviet Union

Rapaić Stevan (MA, Research Associate at the Institute of International Politics and Economics, Belgrade), stevan@diplomacy.bg.ac.rs

This paper analyzes the process of democratization in post-Soviet space (valued primarily through achieved level of civil liberties and political rights) and attempts to answer the question how much was this process determined by cultural and civilization differences, in the way in which Huntington defines them. Considering that the very process of democratization in the former Soviet Union is characterized by the conflict between two civilizational and ideological approaches, where the first one is personified in universalist ideas of liberal (Western Christian) democracy, and second one, the Russian concept of sovereign democracy, the author explains U.S. actions in an attempt to export democracy to the area of the former USSR, as well as Russia’s response towards the restraint of so-called “fourth wave of democratization”.

Keywords: democratization, Samuel P. Huntington, cultural identity, USA, NATO, Russia, human rights, clash of civilizations, the colour revolutions, Freedom House, forth wave