Democracy Beyond Elections: Government Accountability in the Media Age

346 Pages·2020·3.574 MB·English

by  Gergana Dimova

CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY IN THE 21ST CENTURY
SERIES EDITOR: HANSPETER KRIESI
Democracy
Beyond Elections
Government Accountability
in the Media Age
Gergana Dimova
Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
Series Editor
Hanspeter Kriesi
Department of Political and Social Science
European University Institute
San Domenico Di Fiesole, Firenze, Italy
Democracy faces substantial challenges as we move into the 21st Century.
The West faces malaise; multi-level governance structures pose democratic
challenges; and the path of democratization rarely runs smoothly. This
series examines democracy across the full range of these contemporary
conditions. It publishes innovative research on established democracies,
democratizing polities and democracy in multi-level governance structures.
The series seeks to break down artificial divisions between different disci-
plines, by simultaneously drawing on political communication, compara-
tive politics, international relations, political theory, and political economy.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14889
Gergana Dimova
Democracy Beyond
Elections
Government Accountability in the Media Age
Gergana Dimova
Department of Applied Social
Sciences, Forensics and Politics
University of Winchester
Winchester, UK
Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
ISBN 978-3-030-25293-9 ISBN 978-3-030-25294-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25294-6
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For Atanas Dimov
A
cknowledgements
I wrote this book with one single goal in mind: to provide an organis-
ing outline for analysing exciting and important political events to my
future readers. The motivating rationale was my belief that some pundits
sometimes fall through the cracks of interdisciplinary thinking, when the
times of media scandals and government investigations demand an inte-
grative framework. So, perhaps, the biggest inspiration for the book is
my imagined reader- engaged, ingenious and inquisitive.
I would say that the book has lived three distinct lives: the first during
my Ph.D. at Harvard University, the second during my research scholar-
ship at the University of Cambridge and then I went through a period,
when I was trying to marry the methodological and analytical perspec-
tives gleaned at the former and philosophical and theoretical views
gained at the latter. I survived all these three lives thanks to my mentors
and peers.
My exploratory and dissertation writing life at Harvard University
unfolded under the mentorship of Peter Hall, the chair of my Ph.D.
dissertation committee. Professor Hall has a flair for intellectual explo-
ration and patiently supervised me—and respectfully criticised me—
through numerous drafts of the dissertation proposal. Because I reversed
the methodological path, starting from the empirical problem of polit-
ical scandals, instead of from an existing theoretical conundrum, it was
important to have an authority figure I deeply admired and who believed
in the potential of gauging the intractable problem of political scandals
in a methodologically and theoretically coherent way. I still remember
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viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
when, having submitted the 20th draft of the proposal, he told me,
“This could work”. These words by Peter Hall marked the beginning of
this book.
All four of my other dissertation advisors at Harvard University were
invaluable. Professor Timothy Colton took the time to tutor me weekly
on Russian politics and the knowledge about the post-Soviet region
I gained then is reflected in my chapters on Russia and Bulgaria. Jorge
Dominguez has been helpful in promptly and meticulously commenting
on each single draft. The insights of Susan Pharr were critical when I was
clinging on the topic of political scandals and she had to vouch that cor-
ruption allegations were the single most important indicator of govern-
ment popularity in Japan. Cindy Skach helped me navigate the difficult
times of being a young scholar and a woman.
When I started my fellowship at St Catherine’s College at the
University of Cambridge, I was immersed in a new and exciting world
of the history of democracy and democratic theory as taught by John
Dunn, David Runciman, John Thompson and Duncan Bell. I discovered
that I was a closeted democratic theorist and I changed my main inquiry:
instead of only asking “how are incumbents sanctioned for media alle-
gations in different countries?”, I now also wanted to know “what do
these patterns of investigations and sanctions mean for democracy?”
Harald Wydra lent me the decisive moral and intellectual support dur-
ing this time. The Master of St Catherine’s, Professor Jean Thomas, was
instrumental in allowing me to complete two maternity leaves, thus not
putting me in a position to choose between being a scholar or a mother.
I am grateful to the whole governing body of St Catherine’s College for
their humanity and support.
During the third phase of writing this book, I came to the realisation
that I, having been influenced by the Harvard and Cambridge schools of
thought, may have spread my wings too far. With media studies, public
administration and democratic theory all jostling for their place in the
book, I was bravely fighting to cut out a definitive analytical narrative.
Laurence Whitehead’s scholarship, as well as his insights, was critical at
this stage. I am indebted to Frank Vibert for sharing his ideas about the
“rise of the unelected” and for his encouragement. James Martel has been
an amazing mentor ever since I took his undergraduate class at Amherst
College. Albena Azmanova and Liliana Andonova are my role models.
I thank John Keane for affiliating me with the family of Sydney
Democracy Project, since I emphasise “monitory democracy” so much.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ix
I learnt a lot about “counter-democracy” from the long conversation
with Pierre Rosanvallon in Paris in 2017. Wolfgang Merkel allowed me
to explore my ideas in the context of “defective democracies” during a
three-month stay at the Wissenschaftszentrum in Berlin. My special
thanks go to Helene Landemore for discussing with me issues of “epis-
temic democracy” and for her support. Daniele Archibugi shared his
ideas on “global democracy” and gave me advice on publishing. William
Sheward has been a supportive mentor at the University of Winchester.
Jean-Paul Gagnon and Mattew Wood gave me access to a platform to
promote some of the book’s ideas. John McCormick, Matt Flinders, Paul
t’Hart and Sean Hanley provided useful feedback at a certain point dur-
ing the writing process. I thank Palgrave’s editors Ambra Finotello, Anne
Birchley-Brun and Hanspeter Kriesi for their guidance and for carving a
scholarly niche for an interdisciplinary approach to studying democracy.
I am grateful to my peers for being smart, funny, understanding and
insightful: Stan Markus, Andreas Umland, Mark Somos, Bruno Bonizzi,
Dylan Donchev, Rumena Filipova, Anders Corr, Markus Miller, Vesela
Hristova, Milena Savova, Snejina Zacharia, Maria Popova, Oxana Shevel,
Kera Simeonova and Albena Kuyumdzhieva. My college professors and
advisors deserve special thanks: Fred Moseley, Sarah Montgomery and
Penny Gill. Lora Popova “discovered” my analytical and philosophical
streak and forever remains my role model for a teacher. Ruslan Stefanov
and Todor Yalamov collaborated with me at the Centre for the Study
of Democracy in Bulgaria. Ruzha Smilova commented on the Bulgarian
chapter. Todor Radev provided superb research assistance.
The biggest gratitude goes to my family. I am inspired by my mother
Marlena, a philosophy teacher, who has always viewed my education as
a journey in intellectual creativity, not as a means to a (well paid) end.
I thank my dad Radostin for always being there for me and my beau-
tiful and clever sister Ana for giving me the perspective of the financial
world. My grandmother Stefka is a wise woman, whose unconditional
support saved me in many moments of self-doubt. I wrote this book in
the hope that I can show my sons Manol and Martin that they need to
use their talents and to work hard to contribute to society in the future. I
am indebted to my husband Atanas for never doubting this project. This
book is dedicated to him.
London, UK
May 2019
P D B e
rAise for emocracy eyonD lections
“In an age of fake news and deep fake, this book couldn’t be more
timely. Gergana Dimova assesses both the threat to and state of democ-
racy in our highly mediatized era, and offers a far more resilient model
of democratic responses to media scandals than we usually imagine even
as her careful reading suggests the scope and endurance of the danger
democracy is facing today.”
—James Martel, Department of Political Science,
San Francisco State University, USA
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