 The Predicament of Europe’s ‘Last Dictator’Yuliya Brel-Fournier and Minion K.C. Morrison International Area Studies Review, 2021, vol. 24, issue 3, 169-192 Abstract: Belarusian citizens elected their first president in 1994. More than 20 years later, in October 2015, the same person triumphantly won the fifth consecutive presidential election. In August 2020, President Lukashenko’s attempt to get re-elected for the sixth time ended in months’ long mass protests against the electoral fraud, unspeakable violence used by the riot police against peaceful protesters and the deepest political crisis in the modern history of Belarus. This article analyzes how and why the first democratically elected Belarusian president attained this long-serving status. It suggests that his political longevity was conditioned by a specific social contract with the society that was sustained for many years. In light of the recent events, it is obvious that the contract is breached with the regime no longer living up to the bargain with the Belarusian people. As a result, the citizens seem unwilling to maintain their obligation for loyalty. We analyze the escalating daily price for maintaining the status quo and conclude considering the possible implications of this broken pact for the future of Belarus. Keywords: Belarus; democracy; dictatorship; elections; social contract; civil society (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:intare:v:24:y:2021:i:3:p:169-192 DOI: 10.1177/22338659211018326 Access Statistics for this article More articles in International Area Studies Review from Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies |
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