Decline of Democracy in Turkey and Russia

Last Name 2

Huseyin Basak

Professor Copeland

April 3, 2018

Decline in Turkish and Russian Democracy

In the 21st century, it is evident that democracy is continuing to decline in Turkey and Russia. Both governments have strong populist style of democracy because of the leaders, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin. Over the years, especially Turkish democracy has declined severely. Turkey’s on track to become an authoritarian government (one-party, strong man, religious), now it is more like a hybrid regime that is a mix of democracy and authoritarianism. With the control of both parliament and the presidency, Erdogan preserved power by successfully reshaping Turkey’s political and social institutions. After cracking down on press freedom, moving towards Islamism, and deteriorating relationship with the U.S. and the EU have moved Turkey increasingly towards authoritarianism. On the other hand, Russia has already stirred away from democracy under Putin when he transformed an electoral democracy into an electoral authoritarian regime. He manipulated the formal rules of a weakly institutionalized semipresidential system to strengthen his power. Degree of competition in elections dropped continually over time until 2011 when economic growth started to decline and protests increased as a result. Both Turkey and Russia have similarities on how democracy has declined or failing over time such as weak institutions, electoral authoritarian regime, decline in press freedom, and economy for example.