Response #2, Zachary Barbiasz

Now that we have spent a whole semester comparing many different political systems it is easy to see how the many complexities involved with politics makes it difficult to understand why certain states function as they do. During the semester we studied numerous theories in order to understand why so many different systems have developed and how they function today. By doing so, we learned how the effects of globalization, democratization, modernization, capitalism, and ethnicity, etc., have contributed to the development of different political systems.
Starting with the satellite nations of the Soviet Union that developed as a result of the Cold War, we can see how the issue of ethnicity has led to territorial problems. In many cases the rapid development of these nations resulted in instabilities especially when ethnic diversity was added to the mix. With this said, the violence that resulted from the development of these nations has caused their systems of government to fail over and over. Even in the satellite nations that have democratized to the point of electing officials, many of the elections are still rigged leaving many nations as illiberal democracies.
Aside from the many Eastern European nations who have failed to fully democratize nations such as China and Russia have also remained non-democratic. Some have argued that Russia has moved further ahead of China when it comes to democratization however it is clear that both nations are reluctant to fully democratize. One of the main reasons for this reluctance is the state power that communism enables. With this, the fact that both China and Russia have remained both powerful and communist makes it hard to believe that either nation truly wishes to forgo their communist systems. China and Russia alike are nations with large geographical boundaries which may be one reason why the leaders these nations insist on state control. Along with this, with such high populations, especially in China, the potential for a governmental overthrow is highly feared. As a result, the implementation of fear by the state has been a way for these nations to prevent such uprisings.
When looking at these two instances of failed economic development we can see how many different factors contribute to the ideologies behind these nations systems. In the case of the slowly democratizing satellite nations one reason for the failure to fully democratize has been a product of the people and ethnic ties. In the case of China and Russia, failure to democratize is not so much a result of its people but rather the state.