A study of the changes in the condition of political participation after the Color Revolution: Focusing on three post-Soviet countries

Abstract

Political participation is an important part of the democratic consolidation process, especially since democracy differs from authoritarian regimes in that it is a political system that involves ordinary people (through political participation) to take part in the development of public policy. The post-Soviet region, where the legacy of communism influences attitudes towards democracy, has received relatively little attention that's why people living in this region have less awareness of democracy. The so-called "color revolutions" in post-Soviet Eurasia (Rose Revolution in Georgia, 2003; "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine, 2004; Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, 2005) have sparked much international debate about their nature as "democratic processes". Following the concept of Dalton (2008), this comparative study will establish a link between possible predictions of political participation and forms of political participation by comparing the corresponding data for Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan as post-Soviet democracies. The study examined the and found out the changes in predictors of political participation of people in these new democracies through a second analysis of the World Value Survey (WVS) in two different periods - before and after the revolution. In two different time period the strongest predictor of political participation are political interest and political party when some other predictors changed after Color Revolution.