Why does democracy develop unevenly within countries undergoing political reform? Democratization theories imply that the national government uniformly builds democracy throughout the country, but in neither federal nor unitary systems does the national government direct reform in the provinces. Instead, democracy develops in those regions where citizens have multiple opportunities for earning income. When citizens cannot easily find employment outside the state's purview or outside their province, local officials can effectively sanction behavior that challenges government authority. In regions with little economic opportunity, threats of job loss, firings, and repeated state inspections of private businesses effectively discourage citizens from engaging in the civic activity that undergirds democracy. Economic and political reforms are not merely compatible, as recent scholarship suggests, but democratization actually requires prior, or at least concurrent, market reform. Local democracy is important in transition countries because it enables people to solve problems no longer resolved by the state. Democratization of authoritarian and post-totalitarian regimes reduces the state's role in society, contributing to a decline in government services and causing citizens to grow averse to democracy. However, democratization at subnational levels allows nongovernmental groups to form and provide services once offered by the state. By mitigating some of the negative effects of democratization, private service provision encourages citizens to tolerate additional political reforms. In the long-term citizens may even embrace democracy, as these new service-providers solve problems more effectively than the state once did. These conclusions were reached by conducting two surveys, 252 in-depth interviews, and observational studies in Russia and Kyrgyzstan. The focus of the fieldwork was on the Russian provinces Samara and Ul'ianovsk and the Kyrgyzstani provinces Osh and Naryn. Studying subnational democracy in the different cultural, economic, and institutional settings of Russia and Kyrgyzstan increased the generalizability of the findings.Ph.D.Political scienceSocial SciencesSocial structureUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132420/2/9963847.pd
