{"id":11367,"date":"2022-03-04T06:22:23","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T03:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/api.pozirk.online\/longreads\/gap-widens-between-regime-and-society-analysis\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:29:13","slug":"gap-widens-between-regime-and-society-analysis","status":"publish","type":"longreads","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11367\/","title":{"rendered":"Gap widens between regime and society \u2013 analysis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n <span>By Piotra Rudko\u016dski, director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <b>The Belarusian public is much more open to democratization than the ruling elite. The gap has been widening for at least 16 years. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is expected to turn more people into opponents of authoritarianism.&nbsp;<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Freedom: from bad to worse<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Belarus\u2019 democracy and freedom ratings hit new lows in 2021, said Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) and Freedom House (FH), as the country continued to slide into totalitarianism often compared with Joseph Stalin\u2019s political system.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t The FH Freedom Index plunged to 8 from 19 in 2019. Belarus already was not a democracy or semi-democracy before 2020.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Surprisingly, EIU rated democracy in Belarus higher in 2020 than in 2019 despite the many instances of torture, murder, politically motivated purges and prison sentences reported in 2020.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Chart 1. Belarus\u2019 Democracy Index (EIU)<\/b>\n<\/p>\n<h2>\n<p>\n <span>Both government and public are rated <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/h2>\n<p>\n\t EIU index of democracy, on a 0 to 10 scale, is based on ratings for 60 indicators grouped into five categories. The electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties and the functioning of the government are categories reflecting the government\u2019s policy. Political participation and political culture measure the public\u2019s efforts to change it. If the participation and culture ratings are high in authoritarian systems, it means that people are striving for democracy but the authoritarian regime prevents them from participating in political life.\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Belarusians have changed<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t Belarus has seen a wide gap between the two groups of indicators since 2006, when EIU launched its democracy index. The government-related indices have not risen above 3.9 in 16 years. The electoral process and pluralism rating fell to 0 in 2020. The functioning of the government rating improved slightly between 2014 to 2016. Scores for civil liberties declined throughout the period.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t On the other hand, the political culture rating has always been 4.8 or above, reaching 6.25 at one point. Political participation fell to a record low of 2.8 in 2019, but for most of the years it stood at 3.9. In 2020, public-related indicators rose sharply (see Chart 2).\n<\/p>\n<p>\n <b>Chart 2. Five democracy categories (EIU) (blue \u2014 government-related, orange \u2014 public-related) <\/b>\n<\/p>\n<p> <b> <\/b><\/p>\n<p>\n <span>From top down: <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span> <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span><br \/>\n\tElectoral process and pluralism <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span><br \/>\n\tThe functioning of the government <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span><br \/>\n\tCivil liberties <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span><br \/>\n\tPolitical participation <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<p> <span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>\n <span><br \/>\n\tPolitical culture<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h2> <span>Conclusions<\/span> <\/h2>\n<p>\n\t 1. There is a big gap between the public and the ruling elite in terms of readiness to accept democracy. The public is yearning for democracy, while the government completely blocks its aspirations.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t 2. The gap has been observed for 16 years and has widened.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t 3. In 2020 Belarusians displayed impressive resolve in their struggle for democracy. Despite prison sentences, beatings and torture, thousands turned out for peaceful protests for months. The question is how strong the government\u2019s power is to resist democratic aspirations.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t Launched on February 24, Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine and the Belarusian puppet regime\u2019s involvement in it will leave an imprint on Belarusian society. Most Belarusians had supported Moscow during Russia\u2019s invasion of Georgia and the annexation of Crimea. But their sentiment may have changed.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t More Belarusians rely on online media for information rather than on heavily biased Russian and Belarusian TV stations. The war is likely to strengthen the belief of democracy supporters in their values. Most of the undecided are likely to take one side or the other.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Piotra Rudko\u016dski, director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies The Belarusian public is much more open to democratization than the ruling elite. The gap has been widening for at least 16 years. Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine is expected to turn more people into opponents of authoritarianism.&nbsp; Freedom: from bad to worse Belarus\u2019 democracy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":0,"template":"","rubric":[22],"class_list":["post-11367","longreads","type-longreads","status-publish","hentry","rubric-theviewer"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gap widens between regime and society \u2013 analysis | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"By Piotra Rudko\u016dski, director of the Belarusian Institute for Strategic Studies The Belarusian public is much more open to democratization than the ruling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/longreads\/11367\/\" \/>\n<meta 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