MEASURING PRESIDENTIAL POWER IN POST-SOVIET COUNTRIES

Many scholars write about democracy and democratization as a desired outcome of state-building, but few analyze authoritarianism. By contrast, this paper focuses primarily on authoritarian tendencies stretching over post-Soviet area. Having reviewed previous methodologies of measuring constitutional presidential power, the current research develops a new method sensitive to post-Soviet realities. The study also illustrates the relationship between presidentialism and authoritarianism and argues in favor of restricting presidential powers as hindering democratization.