The elections of 2000 reflected the profound disillusionment of the Romanian electorate with the performance of the centrist government of the past four years, rather than a turn away from democracy itself.
About the Author
Grigore Pop-Eleches, associate professor of politics and public and international affairs at Princeton University, is the author of From Economic Crisis to Reform: IMF Programs in Latin America and Eastern Europe (2009).
Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has used its two-thirds majority in parliament to change the constitution, erase checks and balances, and make the electoral system even more majoritarian.
The recent protests in Russia raise the question of whether the Putin regime could fall to a “color” or electoral revolution like those that have ousted other autocratic regimes in…
