Did the internet break the political machine? Moldova's 2009 "twitter revolution that wasn't"1

Demokratizatsiya

Volumn 21, Issue 4, 2013, Pages 481-506

  Hale, Henry E ^a  

^a GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AUTHORITARIANISM; COMMUNISM; DEMOCRACY; DEMOCRATIZATION; FINANCIAL CRISIS; INTERNET; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

MOLDOVA;

EID: 84887117332     PISSN: 10746846     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (36)

1. "Twitter Revolution that Wasn't" comes from David J. Kramer and William H. Hill, "Moldova: The Twitter Revolution that Wasn't," OpenDemocracy, May 28, 2009.
2. E.g., Evgeny Morozov, "Moldova's Twitter Revolution," Foreign Policy magazine's "Net.Effect" online portal, April 7, 2009, 2:15pm, http://neteffect.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/04/07/moldovas-twitter-revolution
3. Alexander L. George and Andrew Bennett. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
4. Lucan A. Way. 2002. "Pluralism by Default in Moldova," Journal of Democracy 13: 4, October: 127-41.
5. Henry E. Hale. 2011. "Hybrid Regimes: When Democracy and Autocracy Mix," in Nathan Brown, ed., Dynamics of Democratization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press: 23-45.
6. Morozov, "Moldova's Twitter Revolution."
7. Mungiu-Pippidi and Munteanu 2009, p.138.
8. Volodymyr V. Lysenko and Kevin C. Desouza. 2012. "Moldova's Internet Revolution: Analyzing the Role of Technologies in Various Phases of the Confrontation." Technology Forecasting & Social Change 79 (2):341-61, here p.341.
9. Maximilian C. Forte, "This Failed Revolution, Powered by Twitter: Revisiting the Recurring Themes of the Moldova Twitter Revolution, and Raising Some New Doubts," posted on his personal "Political Activism and the Web" website, January 21, 2010, http://webography. wordpress.com/2010/01/ 21/this-failed-revolution-powered-by-twitter-revisiting-the-recurring-themes-of- the-moldova-twitter-revolution-and-raising-some-new-doubts/
10. E.g., Vladimir Tismaneanu, "Moldova's Revolution Against Cynical and Cronyist Authoritarianism," RFE/RL Commentary, April 13, 2009
11. Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid regimes After the Cold War. New York: Cambridge University Press
12. Lincoln A. Mitchell. 2012. The Color Revolutions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 163, 187.
13. For a critical review, see Henry Farrell. 2012. "The Consequences of the Internet for Politics," American Review of Political Science 15: 35-52.
14. E.g., Gordon Tullock. 1987. Autocracy. New York: Springer. On post-Soviet countries
15. Henry E. Hale. 2005. "Regime Cycles: Democracy, Autocracy, and Revolution in Post-Soviet Eurasia," World Politics 58: 1 (October): 133-65. (Pubitemid 44120909)
16. Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky. 2006. "Introduction," in Gretchen Helmke and Steven Levitsky, eds., Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press;Way 2002.
17. Sidney Tarrow. 1996. "States and Opportunities: The Political Structuring of Social Movements," in Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald, eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings. New York: Cambridge University Press: 41-61, here pp.54-6.
18. Mark Tkaciuk, Voronin's most prominent political strategist and a top figure in the Communist Party, author's interview, Chisinau, Moldova, June 25, 2009.
19. Ryan Kennedy, "Moldova's Local Elections Reflect National Trends," RFE/RL Newsline, June 29, 2007.
20. Igor Botan, executive director of the analytical center ADEPT, author's interview, Chisinau, Moldova, June 30, 2009.
21. Ryan Kennedy, "Moldova's Local Elections Reflect National Trends," RFE/RL Newsline, June 29, 2007; RFE/RL Newsline, June 8, 2007.
22. Igor Botan, "6th PCRM Congress and Its First Consequences," E-democracy, March 31, 2008, http://www.e-democracy.md/en/monitoring/politics/ comments/200803311/, accessed October 3, 2013.
23. Institute for Public Policy, "Rezumat de presa: Barometrul de Opinie Publica-Noiembrie 2007," IPP website, November 30, 2007, http://www.ipp.md/libview. php?l=ro&idc=156&id=457.
24. Party lists of parties in Moldovan national elections can be found on the e-democracy website of ADEPT, cited above. See also DECA-press, January 28, 2009, 16:19, reprinted by Moldova Azi, http://www.azi.md/ru/story/1104, accessed May 27, 2012
25. Elena Moldoveanu and Alexandru Eftode, "The Communists and the Kid," Transitions Online, 4 December 2008.
26. E.g., Sergei Ovcharenko, "Za chto Voronin prognal Tarleva?" Nezavisimaia Moldova, February 24, 2009.
27. Moldavskie Vedomosti, December 17, 2008, p.3.
28. Serafim Urechean, author's interview, Chisinau, Moldova, December 19, 2008.
29. Institute for Public Policy, "Exit Poll aprilie 2009," IPP website, http://www.ipp.md/libview. php?l=ro&idc=156&id=453 , accessed July 3, 2012.
30. Unimedia, April 6, 2009, 13:09, http://unimedia.md/?mod=news&id= 10237.
31. "Zaiavlenie initsiativnoi gruppy po organizatsii flesh-moba 6 aprelia 2009 goda-'Ia antikommunist'," April 8, 2009, 17:30, posted on Natalia Morar's Live Journal blog, http://natmorar.livejournal.com, accessed April 9, 2009. Morar was a leader of this group as the leader of the association ThinkMoldova.
32. Such videos were shown to the author by Ghimpu in his office on June 25, 2009. Video with Turcan making such statements can be seen on YouTube, uploaded by MoldNews, at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynh8O2y4Fng, accessed July 3, 2012. See also RFE/RL, April 7, 2009.
33. Graham Stack, "The Talented Mr Plahotniuc," BNE Business New Europe, April 11, 2011.
34. Graham Stack, "The Talented Mr Plahotniuc," BNE Business New Europe, April 11, 2011
35. Marian Lupu, interview in paid-for campaign article in Moldavskie Vedomosti, June 26, 2010, p. 3.
36. Institute for Public Policy, "Exit Poll 2009: 29 iulie 2009," IPP website, http://www.ipp. md/public/files/Barometru/Exit-Poll-29.07-ora-21- final.pdf, accessed July 5, 2012.