Decades after the USSR collapsed, Eurasian countries struggle to maintain democracy

Decades after the USSR collapsed², Eurasian countries struggle to maintain democracy

Transcript³

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to Michael Abramowitz of Freedom House about the state of democracy in 29 formerly⁴ communist nations of Central Europe and Central Asia following Russia's war on Ukraine.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have an overview⁵ now on democracy in the region once dominated by the former Soviet⁶ Union. The old communist empire covered what are now 29 nations, which got a fresh chance at freedom when the Soviets⁷ collapsed, countries from Kazakhstan in Asia to Eastern European nations like Hungary. Three decades later, the think tank Freedom House finds that some of them are democratic, while most have some version of the old power structures and some are backsliding. The president of Freedom House is Michael Abramowitz, and he's on the line. Welcome.

MICHAEL ABRAMOWITZ: Great to be here, Steve.

INSKEEP: What has made it hard to live up to the promise of that great moment around 1990, '91, '92, the moment of the Soviet fall?

ABRAMOWITZ: Well, it's a sad story, Steve. As you indicated, this was a region that had been very hopeful in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, after the collapse¹ of the Soviet empire. And we had a lot of hopes for democracy, for freedom. People thought that democracy was going to be the end station for this region. But things have turned in a bad direction. And essentially⁸ our report shows that democracy is losing ground to autocracy⁹. A big part of the story is candidly¹⁰ Vladimir Putin. You know, Putin has turned Russia from what had been a hopeful democracy into one of the most repressive governments in the world. And his influence is getting vast in the region.

INSKEEP: I guess we should underline here democracy is not binary¹¹. You're in or your out. It's on a kind of a sliding scale. Russia was never such a great democracy, but they had elections. They had free media. They had a lot of things going for them 20 years ago.

ABRAMOWITZ: That's right. Democracy is never fully¹² achieved. It's an end state. And our report identifies different kinds of democracies. You have, you know, consolidated¹³ democracies, which are the strongest democracies. And that's a country, you know, like Poland. And then you have - what's really interesting about the region is that you have more of what we call hybrid¹⁴ democracies, which are democracies kind of in name only, that they have free elections - or sometimes free - but they also don't respect the rule of law. They have undermined the independent judiciary. The media - the news media is out of - is under consistent attack. The elections are manipulated. And so you have a - you don't really have a lot of really true democracies in the region, save for about 10 out of 29.

INSKEEP: I'm thinking of a country like Hungary, which would have been considered much more democratic 10 years ago than it is now.

ABRAMOWITZ: Absolutely. Hungary, I think, is a great case study of what was once a strong democracy, which under Viktor Orban has become really a one-party state. We had an election - there was an election there recently. Orban won very easily. And by all accounts, he's probably a popular person in Hungary. And I suspect that many Hungarians support him. But the reality is that he won election only by really putting a hard tilt¹⁵ on the media. He controls the media there. The opposition¹⁶ had no really fresh, fair opportunity to make their points. And so he really kind of controls the situation. Another feature of Hungary is gerrymandering, which we have in our own country. You know, he's manipulated the system so that even if he gets, say, 49% or 50% of the vote, he'll have many more seats in the legislature. So he really has his thumbs on the scale in Hungary.

INSKEEP: You did point out, though, this undemocratic leader nevertheless seems - as best we can tell given the unfair system - seems popular. And your report does talk about widespread dissatisfaction with democracy, even in the countries that are still counted among democracies. Are people, the people at large, giving up on this system?

ABRAMOWITZ: That's something I fear. I hope that's not the case. I think you have a situation in Belarus, for instance - that's another case. That's a purely¹⁷ authoritarian¹⁸ setting. They had an election - it wasn't fair - two years ago, but it's pretty clear the opposition won. And millions of people came onto the streets to protest what was really a farcical election. And that protests were put down by a lot of repression¹⁹, a lot of violence. So to me, that says there's still a demand for democracy. But right now, the authoritarians²⁰ are putting their thumbs on the scale.

INSKEEP: How were Ukrainians doing at democracy before Russia invaded?

ABRAMOWITZ: Ukraine is a great story. Ukraine was one of the stronger democracies in the region up until the invasion. It was not perfect, but it was building a strong democracy. It was building the institutions of a free state. They have made it repeatedly clear over the last 10 years that they did not want to - the voters of Ukraine did not want to live in a country that was dominated by Russia. And so I think one of the major reasons that Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine is that he was scared about the presence of a strong democracy right on the Russian borders. And so that's what's very sad about the situation in Ukraine. I really think that democracy is on the line right now, among other issues on the line. But democracy is definitely at risk in Ukraine right now.

INSKEEP: When you look across this former Soviet bloc²¹, these dozens of nations, many of which are not democratic at all or not very democratic, is there a success story you'd like to point to?

ABRAMOWITZ: Well...

INSKEEP: That was a revealingly long pause. I'm just going to say that right now.

ABRAMOWITZ: I'm stumped²². I think there are several countries. The Czech Republic - let me say the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is an interesting story. They had a lot of early success under Vaclav Havel. Then they turned in a more kind of - not so authoritative²³ but one of these kind of mixed models where they had a leader that was, you know, like Orban trying to kind of control everything. But he's been thrown out in an election there, and the Czech Republic is moving in a good direction. So the point is that there is hope, and there are a lot of other smaller countries - I'm also heartened by what's happening in the Baltics. The Baltics - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia - these are countries that are still very strong democracies. And the people and the leaders of the Baltics are very supportive of what's - of the Ukrainian people. And what's happening in the Baltics also gives me hope.

INSKEEP: And those are actual former Soviet republics. Mr. Abramowitz, thanks so much.

ABRAMOWITZ: Thanks for having me, Steve.

INSKEEP: Michael Abramowitz is president of Freedom House, which put out a report on democracy or the lack of it in nations of the former Soviet bloc.

1 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

2 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

5 overview   

n.概观，概述

参考例句：

• The opening chapter gives a brief historical overview of transport.第一章是运输史的简要回顾。
• The seminar aims to provide an overview on new media publishing.研讨会旨在综览新兴的媒体出版。

6 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

7 soviets   

苏维埃（Soviet的复数形式）

参考例句：

• A public challenge could provoke the Soviets to dig in. 公开挑战会促使苏联人一意孤行。
• The Soviets proposed the withdrawal of American ballistic-missile submarines from forward bases. 苏联人建议把美国的弹道导弹潜艇从前沿基地撤走。

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 autocracy   

n.独裁政治，独裁政府

参考例句：

• The revolution caused the overthrow of the autocracy.这场革命导致了独裁政体的结束。
• Many poor countries are abandoning autocracy.很多贫穷国家都在放弃独裁统治。

10 candidly   

adv.坦率地，直率而诚恳地

参考例句：

• He has stopped taking heroin now,but admits candidly that he will always be a drug addict.他眼下已经不再吸食海洛因了,不过他坦言自己永远都是个瘾君子。
• Candidly,David,I think you're being unreasonable.大卫，说实话我认为你不讲道理。

11 binary   

adj.二，双；二进制的；n.双(体)；联星

参考例句：

• Computers operate using binary numbers.计算机运行运用二进位制。
• Let us try converting the number itself to binary.我们试一试，把这个数本身变成二进制数。

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

13 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

14 hybrid   

n.(动，植）杂种，混合物

参考例句：

• That is a hybrid perpetual rose.那是一株杂交的四季开花的蔷薇。
• The hybrid was tall,handsome,and intelligent.那混血儿高大、英俊、又聪明。

15 tilt   

v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜

参考例句：

• She wore her hat at a tilt over her left eye.她歪戴着帽子遮住左眼。
• The table is at a slight tilt.这张桌子没放平，有点儿歪.

16 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

17 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

18 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

19 repression   

n.镇压，抑制，抑压

参考例句：

• The repression of your true feelings is harmful to your health.压抑你的真实感情有害健康。
• This touched off a new storm against violent repression.这引起了反对暴力镇压的新风暴。

20 authoritarians   

权力主义者，专制者，独裁者( authoritarian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• It requires no complicated theories of a preference for authoritarians or personal seduction. 并不需要所谓偏爱独裁者或似魅力等复杂理论。
• The authors advocated immediate intervention by industry chiefs to stop authoritarians from rising up the ranks. 研究报告的撰写者们呼吁行业领导立即采取措施阻止有此种苗头的单位领导获得晋升机会。

21 bloc   

n.集团；联盟

参考例句：

• A solid bloc of union members support the decision.工会会员团结起来支持该决定。
• There have been growing tensions within the trading bloc.贸易同盟国的关系越来越紧张。

22 stumped   

僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的过去式和过去分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说

参考例句：

• Jack huffed himself up and stumped out of the room. 杰克气喘吁吁地干完活，然后很艰难地走出房间。
• He was stumped by the questions and remained tongue-tied for a good while. 他被问得张口结舌，半天说不出话来。

23 authoritative   

adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的

参考例句：

• David speaks in an authoritative tone.大卫以命令的口吻说话。
• Her smile was warm but authoritative.她的笑容很和蔼，同时又透着威严。