The article analyzes the role and impact of preconditions and policies (structure and agency) on the failed, derailed transitions to democracy over the last two decades. The primary set of countries consists of 29 post-communist countries, including Mongolia, all of which during this period pursued different transformation trajectories leading to different regime outcomes. The authors are mostly interested in cases which did not result in the emergence of consolidated democracies but drifted into the so-called grey zone or regressed into new types of autocracies.

This article examines the effect of a divided executive on democratisation in semi-presidential regimes. A divided executive is where the president and prime minister are not from the same party. The importance of a divided executive is hypothesised to vary according to the relative powers of the president and prime minister. In semi-presidential regimes where either the president or the prime minister is the dominant actor, then a divided executive will not affect democratisation. However, where both the president and prime minister have significant independent powers, then a divided executive should have a negative impact on democratisation because of the potential for destabilising intra-executive conflict. Using an ordinal logit model, the results show that semi-presidential regimes with a dual executive do not perform significantly worse than semi-presidential regimes where there is one dominant actor. This suggests that the standard wisdom about the impact of a divided executive in semi-presidential regimes is misplaced.

The functioning of a democratic regime depends on a set of parameters, which configuration defines its essential characteristics. Accountability is one of the most significant parameters, because of its ability to improve the quality of the democracy and political decisions. In the presented article the author approaches studying accountability systems in post-communist countries. Basing on the critics of previous studies, the author suggests a new conceptual framework for the analysis of accountability systems in post-communist countries and presents model and indicators of assessing its performance by examining the configuration of the accountability system.

The author tries to reflect the main stages of the usage of public holidays by the ruling elite in modern Russia. Drawing on the works devoted to the study of symbolic politics and policies of the past, the author traces the way in which the transformation of public holidays has been taking place in Russia since the 1990 s to the present time. The author concludes that the usage of public holidays is up-to-the-minute, without a comprehensive study of their role in the construction of national identity.

The article charts the development of electoral politics in three of the four post-Soviet unrecognised or partially recognised de facto states, namely Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia, and Transnistria. In particular, it examines presidential elections in Abkhazia (August 2011), Transnistria (December 2011) and Nagorno-Karabakh (July 2012). This research addresses the existing lacunae by providing a comprehensive assessment of the dynamics of electoral politics within these three unrecognised or partially recognised post-Soviet states.

The paper examines the divergent gender aspect of two parliamentary contests held in 2012 in the de facto state of Abkhazia and its parent state of Georgia.The paper places the election results in the context of the states’ electoral environments - the electoral systems, the political parties contesting the elections, and the impact of the 2012 amendments to Georgian law on political parties, which included financial incentive to support a 20% gender quota for candidates. It presents a gender analysis of the party candidates and of the election results. It assesses the impact of the electoral environment on women politicians by using a comparative case study of the election campaigns of selected women candidates.

This article explores the role of civil society organisations in the development of colour revolutions. It does so by surveying the role of the organisation PORA during the electoral campaign and the subsequent protests in November and December 2004. By studying the civic campaign PORA this article sheds some light on the role civil society organisations, and non-state actors, may play in supporting or challenging an existing regime. This article uses empirical material to answer the main questions about the genuinity of PORA (and civic movements in general) during the Orange Revolution and the mechanisms and tactics that led to mobilising masses and induce political change in the country.

The author realizes analysis of characteristics of dominant party regime in order to advancement new research perspective for political transformation of several post-communist states. Based on study of theoretical approaches and conceptualization dominant party regime’s the author examines mechanisms of political competition under single-party dominance. Erosion of electoral competition that maintained by regime’s resource advantages provide durability of dominant party regimes.

The Catholic Church has always been one of the most significant social institutions in Poland, which has influenced country`s politics. It continued to play an important role in the post-communist period. The article analyzes the impact of the Church on the country`s political life and ideology of the Law and Justice party, whose representatives held the key posts in the government in 2006-2007. Nowadays the party is the most influential opposition force in Poland.