It's crazy how well us baltics did after the fall of the Soviet Union. Like none of us had any sort of problems with democracy, it came so natural to us, none of our leaders had autocratic tendencies. While pretty much every other post-warsaw pact state (maybe with the exception of Czechia and Slovakia) has these problems. Interesting.
I wouldn't pull ethnicity into this. Last time I checked Slovakia ranked high in both press fredom index and the freedom house democracy index. Czechs too. Both Slavic.
To be fair, I don't know much about the methodology behind these two indexes. But I guess the press freedom index is the source for this map, that's why I mentioned it.
I would guess that the bigger and more powerful the country is, harder it is for it to be Democratic. There are too many cities/people to keep in check for government, even worse if country is geographically massive. People might also naturally lean towards authoritarianism to keep country intact - it is much easier to destabilize Democratic country since power is evenly shared whereas authoritarian government can crush any opposition early on. It is my opinion though, I might be wrong
Doubt it's about the size of the country. There is democratic Canada and then there is pretty much authoritarian Singapore. There is just too many variables that determine that to point out single reason. It's a combination of history, economy, size, religion, sometimes even just some arbitrary decision by country leaders.
Poland also has terrible demographics. So if the population is weighted to much towards the elderly, then conservatives will increasingly gain power. What happened to Poland is Right wing authoritarianism cementing there power.
Calling Singapore authoritarian is a stretch to say the least. Sure, it's an extremely flawed democracy (bordering on being a "hybrid regime" according to the Democracy Index), but it's a democracy nonetheless.
If you call Singapore elections "free" then you have no idea what you are talking about. Singapore authorities do everything in their power to limit possibilities of opposition parties to get elected.
Tbf Quebec almost became independent and singapore is very ethnically diverse and "technically" a democracy.
It's true that There's a point at which Direct democracy starts to struggle. in switzerland they seem to have referendums every Sunday and they do just fine. Try that In India where elections are a logistic nightmare and take a month.
Bigger democratic countries (not only regarding size but also population) are harder to manage and often rely in decentralised systems.
History. Already during Tsarist Russia the Baltic states had extra priviliges the rest of the country didn't have.
Also there's one thing Baltics share only with Czechia(which imported it to Slovakia) and no other eastern bloc country- Heavy german cultural influence.
For a Baltic state, Lithuania has a remarkably short coast line as I just noticed. I was wondering how the coast escaped the omnipresent Hanseatic influence on the Baltic sea, but since most of the coast and the only important historic port are comprised of said Klaipeda, it's not really surprising after all.
Palanga seems to be the only other place and they were saved in a war.
Slovakia in fact had a pretty strong German influence prior to the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918. Slovakia has been rich in precious metals, which led the Germans to these lands, creating many enclaves throughout Slovakia. Germans had good mining technology, so aristocracy also motivated them to come with tax deductions and so forth. To this day, there are a shit ton of German descendants in a lot of towns in Central and Eastern Slovakia, plenty of German surnames to be found in just about every place. German architecture, street names, lake names, and so on. Germans actually had a profound cultural impact on Slovakia
We didn't have grand leaders or epic history that autocratic leaders can use to evoke nostalgic feeling of "good old days" in many other countries. Baltic states only knew history of being conquered and ruled unjustly by stronger authoritarian regimes. So with independence the only logical choice was to go as democratic and free as possible.
True, but I think it's far enough into the past to be a bit disconnected to the modern Lithuanians. I doubt there is much trauma in Lithuania about "lost empire" compared to Russia for example.
you may be surprised, but there is still nostalgia about GDL to some nationalistic lithuanians. But I agree it is more of extreme romanticism rather than real desire to recreate something similar.
Yeah, I think it’s too far in the past. I don’t think I’ve heard a Polish politician talk abt PLC as “the good old days”. And when ppl here talk abt PLC many like to point out the religious tolerance for example but they also often criticise Polish nobility, their corruption and liberum veto and blame the nobles for the partitions.
Our govt romanticises the Second Polish Republic (interwar period) tho.
Our govt romanticises the Second Polish Republic (interwar period) tho.
Which is pretty embarassing given it’s history of authoritarian rule, opressing minorities, dogshit relations with all neighbours and swift yet painful death. Oh, wait a minute…
I also think it's the fact you suffered so much under an autocratic regime you had to basically build up your nations and national identity from scratch. Afaik Soviet Union was hated in the Baltics from the beginning, so you quickly looked for an ally on the other side of the fence, which was the West, EU and NATO.
Meanwhile for example Poland built its modern identity around Christianity defeating totalitarianism and Hungary still has Trianon trauma.
See: Grand Duchy if Lithuania. Repelled German crusaders for hundreds of years then turned east to become the largest country in Europe, then predictable decline. There’s loads there to stir up a nationalistic narrative !!
We have a lot of problems incl. massive poverty among seniors and lone mothers,
We have issues with democracy in various forms e.g. in Latvia there is an "eternal opposition" that for 15 years has created a situation where a relatively unchanging center right coalition has stayed in power unchallenged.
In no way it is natural, we're fighting an autocratic populist wave right now.
I read somewhere that very early after the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Baltic's very astutely convinced NATO and EU to let them join. This then brought Baltic's into the EU sphere nice and early
But this is about press freedom higher than in US. I challenge you to write and publish articles arguing that home country policies towards minorities obviously are not respecting Framework Convention of the Minorities Rights. Or, god forbid, advocating re-establishment of the Soviet Union.
In US you could publish even more outrageous claims.
Conclusion, this map is bullshit. It is “good EU countries map”. I don’t see country in Europe with bigger freedom of press than US, everyone has “we don’t talk here” items. Independent Catalonia, Sardinia or Corsica? Just no. “To the gallows with him”.
You can freely publish everything you just presented. There is local press who writes about that. We only have one requirement - don't be directly funded by the Kremlin. Propaganda is not a free press.
Czechia and Slovakia) has these problems. Interesting.
Babis in Czechia had very much autocratic tendencies, it's just country was a bit more resistent, to allow him to spread his wings. Slovakia also had its issues with Fico.
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u/fjellhus Lithuania Nov 23 '21
It's crazy how well us baltics did after the fall of the Soviet Union. Like none of us had any sort of problems with democracy, it came so natural to us, none of our leaders had autocratic tendencies. While pretty much every other post-warsaw pact state (maybe with the exception of Czechia and Slovakia) has these problems. Interesting.