About Democratist
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.” Churchill.
Welcome to Democratist; featured on The Economist, Financial Times, Radio Free Europe, Kyiv Post and inoSMI websites, and read by almost 50,000 people per month in over 100 countries – including Foreign Ministers, Diplomats, Academics, Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalists, non-Pulitzer Prize Winning Journalists, other bloggers, the staff of Russia Today, the SVR, the FSB – and assorted innocent bystanders…
About me: I have been interested in democratization, Russia and the CIS for about 15 years and have a MA in Political Science from UCL (University of London). I also studied at the LSE (under the late, great Fred Halliday). I have worked extensively in the region for various international organizations.
I blog from a somewhat (although by no means unreservedly) economically liberal, and pro-democracy perspective. I’m also generally pro-EU and pro-NATO. I don’t like authoritarianism or its attendant inefficiencies and corruption. My analytical framework draws strongly on aspects of historical sociology. In terms of foreign policy I’m for a pragmatic mix of realism and liberalism.
You can contact me at democratistcontact@gmail.com if you like, or follow me on twitter; MrDemocratist.
Recent articles are listed below;
Should RT be banned?
The Russian State and the Berlin Wall. Lying then, lying now.
The Russian State and the Berlin Wall: Lying then, lying now.
Yanukovich: Running on Empty.
http://democratist.net/2013/12/15/empty/
A “French Spring?”
http://democratist.net/2013/04/27/laughland/
To Rig Or Not to Rig?
http://democratist.net/2012/05/28/ukraine-2012/
Putin’s Third Term: “Potemkin Reform”
http://democratist.net/2012/05/02/potemkin-reform/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120504/191537025.html
Putin’s Third Term: Towards Instability?
http://democratist.net/2012/04/24/instability/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120425/191144088.html
The Counter-Revolutionary Council and the Temptations of Foreign Adventurism.
http://democratist.net/2012/04/13/crc/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120515/191997309.html
Americans, Liberasts, and Russian Democracy.
http://democratist.net/2012/04/04/liberasts/
(Russian translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120405/189986256.html
International Relations and the Arab Spring: A Non-Conspiratorial View.
http://democratist.net/2012/04/02/non-conspiratorial/
(Russian translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/social/20120403/189775674.html
“Colour Revolution” and the Legitimating Myths of Putinism.
http://democratist.net/2012/03/23/colour-revolution/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/russia/20120326/189141202.html
Putin 2.0?
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/putin-2-0/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120320/188707607.html
Spies, lies, and the OSCE.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/14/spies-lies-osce/
Russian Autocracy and the Future of the Arab Spring.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/arab-future/
(Russian Translation): http://www.inosmi.ru/politic/20120314/188124818.html
A reply to Peter Lavelle’s article, “The return of Vladimir Putin.” in The National Interest.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/lavelle/
Book Review: “Deception: Spies, Lies and How Russia Dupes the West.” By Edward Lucas.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/08/deception/
Provokatsiya: Regime may be preparing stitch-up job on OSCE.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/provokatsiya/
You have been weighed, and found wanting: RT and the 1st Anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/weighed-and-wanting/
CSTO: What ya gonna do when they come for you?
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/csto-summit/
Revolution, democracy and the West.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/revolution-democracy-west/
Lviv: Nationalist Overreaction in Galicia.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/lviv-nationalist-overreaction/
The Crimean Tatars: Future Opportunities, lingering threats.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/tatars-opportunities-and-threats/
Whispers of Change in Tiraspol.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/05/31/whispers-of-change-in-tiraspol/
Moldova’s 2011 local elections will confirm its European Orientation.
Ukraine: The other 2012.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/ukraine-the-other-2012/
Ukraine may be turning towards the EU, but integration remains a distant prospect.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/05/18/ukraine-eu-prospects/
Ukraine under Yanukovich.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/05/14/ukraine-domestic-situation/
Russia 2012: Mr. Kudrin Takes a (Semi) Stand.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/kudrin-semi-stand/
Mr Putin’s Very Very Large White Elephant.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/putins-white-elephant/
Bunga Bunga! Russia Today lends an old friend a hand.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/bunga-bunga/
The FSB and the Web: Out-innovated, yet again.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/out-innovated-yet-again/
The Arab Spring, Susan Strange, and Western “Structural Power”.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/arab-spring-structural-power/
The Great “Arab Spring” of 2011: Causes and Consequences.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/great-arab-spring/
The Enduring Relevance of NATO in “an Asian Age.”
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/nato-asian-age/
Dimitry Medvedev and the autonomous power of lies.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/dimitry-medvedev-and-the-power-of-lies/February
Anna Chapman and United Russia: Inevitable Bedfellows.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/anna-chapman-and-united-russia-inevitable-bedfellows/
Wikileaks and the Broader Foreign Policy Context.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/wikileaks-and-the-broader-foreign-policy-context/
FDI into Russia and the Forthcoming Elections
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/02/18/russia.-fdi-and-the-forthcoming-elections/
The Egyptian Revolution and the Precariousness of Modern Autocracy.
Moldova 2011: A New Opportunity for EU diplomacy.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/01/07/moldova-2011-a-renewed-opportunity-for-eu-diplomacy/
Eric Kraus and the Khordokovsky Trial.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/khordokovsky-trial-mafia-state/
Russia: Counter Espionage as Foreign Policy.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/russia-counter-espionage-as-foreign-policy/
Belarus 2010: “An Internal Matter”.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/belarus-2010-an-internal-matter/
Belarus 2010: Electoral Coercion and Fraud Techniques.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/belarus-2012-electoral-coercion-and-fraud-techniques/
An Introduction to the Historical Sociology of International Relations.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/1649/
Democratist is currently working on a series of articles about the relationship between democracy and innovation;
i) Democracy and Innovation: Martin Wolf Makes the Liberal Case.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/democracy-innovation-liberal-case/
ii) Democracy and Innovation: A Cold War Case Study.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/democracy-innovation-cold-war/
iii) Democracy and Innovation: Dimitry Medvedev’s Skolkovo Illusion.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/democracy-and-innovation-the-skolkovo-illusion/
iv) Crane and Usmanov: A more detailed overview of current policy and innovation.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/policy-innovation-detailed-view/
The Russian Military Industrial Complex: An Unresolvable Discrepancy .
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/unresolvable-discrepancy/
The FSB and the Web: Out-innovated, yet again.
https://democratist.wordpress.com/2011/04/08/out-innovated-yet-again/
NB – this an ongoing “project” and the articles we write here are liable to change/revision over time.
Democratist 