The Role of Economic IGOs on Post-Soviet Democratization

WORKING ABSTRACT: This paper investigates the role of economic IGO membership on democratic transition efforts of the Central and Eastern European post-Soviet states. Existing work finds that democratizing states are more likely to join standards-based and economic organizations over political organizations, and that democratically dense IGOs can help facilitate democratic transitions in autocratic regimes. Following this theoretical approach, I specifically test the role of economically-oriented organizations in an effort to understand whether entering into more democratically dense economic IGOs results in an increase in democracy in the post-Soviet transition states. If the economically-oriented IGO is dominated by major democratic powers, will this increase the probability of democratization as compared to agreements that are dominated by the former leader: Russia? The results of my analysis show significant support for the theory that economic IGOs can be vehicles through which democratization is facilitated. Additionally, they show support for the theoretical argument that democratically dense IGOs have a substantial and significant positive effect on democratization in post-Soviet states. Former communist states in Central and Eastern Europe who join numbers of democratically dense economic IGOs, experience higer levels of democracy. The simultaneous political and economic transition of these states presents an opportunity to evaluate the effect of economic IGOs on regimes already undergoing transition rather than the probability of triggering regime change.