IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/intare/v24y2021i3p169-192.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Predicament of Europe’s ‘Last Dictator’

Author

Listed:
  • Yuliya Brel-Fournier
  • Minion K.C. Morrison

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuliya Brel-Fournier & Minion K.C. Morrison, 2021. "The Predicament of Europe’s ‘Last Dictator’," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 24(3), pages 169-192, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:24:y:2021:i:3:p:169-192
    DOI: 10.1177/22338659211018326
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/22338659211018326
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/22338659211018326?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew T. Green, 2002. "Comparative Development of Post-communist Civil Societies," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(3), pages 455-471.
    2. International Monetary Fund, 2005. "Republic of Belarus: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2005/217, International Monetary Fund.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elżbieta Macioszek & Anna Granà, 2021. "The Analysis of the Factors Influencing the Severity of Bicyclist Injury in Bicyclist-Vehicle Crashes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-23, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maksim Yemelyanau, 2008. "Inequality in Belarus from 1995 to 2005," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp356, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    2. Maksim Yemelyanau, 2009. "Inequality in Belarus from 1995 to 2007," BEROC Working Paper Series 01, Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center (BEROC).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:intare:v:24:y:2021:i:3:p:169-192. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.hufs.ac.kr/user/hufsenglish/re_1.jsp .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.