Ramiz Mehdiyev demokratiya yolunda: irs haqqında düşünərkən

 

 

782 

Ramiz 

Mehdiyev  

 

Towards to 

democracy: 

reflecting on 

heritage 

 

Surely, democratization successfully is carried out in places 

where experience of democratic establishment exists, however, 

this judgment, under no circumstances jeopardizes the 

possibility of achieving democracy in societies undergoing 

transition. Nevertheless, democratic transition requires more 

prudent, balanced as well as deeply thought-out approach. 

Export of ideas and views may not be effective, unless they 

comply with the traditional structure of communism, that is, to 

the system of social views. Imported models are not always 

ready to adhere to the conditions in transformative societies, 

because success of the future transformation, to certain extent is 

predetermined by political, economic and socio-cultural 

willingness of society. Therefore, regardless of the established 

location, democracy is to be evolutionary and sovereign, that 

will promote complex and stable development of civil society, 

promotion of effective political structures, and formation of 

compatible economy and application of functional mechanism 

impact on regional processes. This is exactly the main direction 

of national strategic development of Azerbaijan in the 21

st

 

century. 

It must be underlined that, problem concerning the 

expansion of “stripes of democratic states” remains actual even 

from the “clash of civilizations” standpoint, whereupon two 

worlds – West and non-west – offer their own perception on tra-

jectory of the development of universe: some assert that, 

foundation of stability is the homogenous order based on certain 

hierarchy of the values, and the others prefer to exist according 

to their own models, thus, rejecting Western interference to 

internal affairs. Problem becomes severe with the confrontation 

of democratic Christian world with less democratic, in other 

words, authoritarian and non-western one. Without doubt, all 

these demagogic definitions changed perception of democracy 

from the stance of the theory of peoples’ power into 

geopolitical theory of establishment of new world order. 

Apparently, democracy in transitional societies requires 

step-by-step acknowledgement of foreign stereotypes and 

behavior norms. Every similar step conditions the shift from 

public awareness into the course of new psychological and 

social determinants. As a result, different sociopolitical 

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783

Summary 

 

environment is formed. In other words, English writer Gilbert 

Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) quoted: “It is not necessary to 

have a revolution to reach democracy. It is necessary to have 

democracy to cause revolution”. 

It is necessary to take into account that, 21

st

 century was 

marked not only with the new geopolitical division of sphere of 

influence, but also substantially changed the relation of leading 

powers towards global transformation and democratic 

processes. When previous years of neoconservative wing in the 

USA (first presidential term of Bush Jr.) were marked with new 

geostrategic “march to east”, second presidential term of 

George Bush Jr. was the period of more active advancement of 

democracy in Eastern Europe, central Asia and other regions of 

the world. The United States of America, as expressed by 

H.Kissinger – “torch of freedom and democracy” stand on top 

of the new democratic changes, which shocked the whole post-

soviet space and changed the perception about “guaranteed 

safety” of the existing regimes. 

New “democratic wave” became basis for revolutionary 

changes in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and to some extent in 

Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. It shook the unsteady systems that 

even stronger, and outlined contours of new world order 

targeting establishment of democratic administration in all its’ 

subjects. Besides, it became fundamental theme of discussion of 

prominent politicians and economists, journalists, as well as 

analysts.  

Thesis, advocating the idea of “democracies do not fight 

against each other”, turned out to be solid ground for the 

establishment of safety stripes and expansion of “democratic 

zones” up to Afghanistan, Iraq and number of post-soviet 

countries. There are countries that can be seen on the horizon of 

fledgling transformation which belong to the non-democratic 

category by the USA. 

 Meantime, the wider the expansion of democratic zone and 

larger the space of new westernization, the faster the preference 

of globalized projects changes, which subsequently affects the 

vectors of advancement in the latest world history; including 

military-political and economic impact and sociocultural 

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784 

Ramiz 

Mehdiyev  

 

Towards to 

democracy: 

reflecting on 

heritage 

 

disposition. It is very clear that, in the new world order, military 

might, internal consensus and foreign political factors don’t 

play the key role in determining the new priorities in the 

Eastern hemisphere countries. Contemporary politics is mostly 

oriented on sociocultural aspects of impact on mass cognition – 

fundamental element of making political decisions in the 

postindustrial and information technology world. New epoch 

affected considerably not only economy and social development 

of the society, but also political acknowledgement on signi-

ficant level. Max Weber once asserted that rational bureaucracy 

within industrial society is the essence of its’ life, we know that, 

today, in informational society neither governments nor corpo-

rations rely exceptionally on formal and bureaucratic regula-

tions in order to organize people, whom they have power over.  

Revolution of young officers, which started more than 30 

years ago in Portugal with the overthrow of dictator Salazar, 

marked the “third democratic wave” which engulfed new states 

and continents with intermittent success. Impact of this wave, 

almost like “butterfly effect”, affected Central and Eastern 

Europe, Southern America and South – Eastern Asia, and 

approximately twenty years later it reached Soviet Union which 

was based on autocratic system. 

After the events in Serbia and overthrow of Slobodan 

Milosevic from the power, “orange” revolution in Georgia in 

2004 that sent to the resignation long-lived politician, Eduard 

Shevardnadze, laid the foundation of expansion of the 

“reconstruction” tendencies throughout the CIS. A less than a 

year elapsed and wave of changes reached Ukraine–the most 

important geopolitical country on the border of Russia. 

Throughout the entire history of the CIS, it was the last time 

where election in one of the ally countries was expected to be 

held according to the established traditions. However, following 

development of the events evinced the erroneousness of such 

approach. Leonid Kuchma, assuming stable and moreover–

inheriting transit of power into the hands of Prime Minister 

V.Yanukovich, was not ready for the completely unexpected 

turnover of events. As a consequence of massive rallies that 

lasted more than a month on Liberty Square, political era of 

Leonid Kuchma was left in the past. 

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