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The article explores the conditions under which incumbent leaders in initially competitive political systems manage to offset democratic resistance and establish an authoritarian regime. Autocratisation – the transition from a competitive political system to a regime dominated by a single political force – is a challenging effort for an incumbent and involves interventions in three 'arenas' to achieve (a) public legitimation, (b) institutional reforms increasing political repression and (c) mass-scale co-optation. Focusing on Slovakia and Belarus in the 1990s, where autocratisation efforts failed and succeeded respectively, the article finds that co-optation plays a catalytic role in helping the incumbent pass institutional reforms and escalate repression without risking de-legitimation. In Belarus, co-optation engulfed society and the economy whereas, in Slovakia, a socioeconomic environment with greater autonomy from government limited the scope for co-optation. The Slovak opposition was able to find the resources and supporters necessary to fight back against the incumbent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

This article analyses the 'spiral of silence' as a mechanism of political communication in post-Communist Belarus in the cases of the presidential elections in 2001 and the general election in 2008, using methods of public opinion polls and content analysis of Belarusian state-run press. The authors argue that the phenomenon of the 'spiral of silence' -- a classic problem in political communication -- has some important peculiarities in the case of authoritarian post-Communist societies. On the one hand, authorities use mass media as an instrument of political control, mainly control of public opinion, especially during important political campaigns (elections and referenda). On the other hand, post-Communist society has an 'additional precondition' for the effectiveness of this mechanism: contrary to democratic societies (in both developed and developing countries), people in this society have much less cultural and psychological heritage of resistance to pressure from the majority due to the dominance of the principles of collectivism and unity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...