Post-Communist Countries - Essay Example

Post-Communist Countries Thesis ment Bulgaria, Georgia, Poland, Russia, Uzbekistan, and USA shared some political, religious, and economic ideologies in the 80’s. However, there have been significant changes in the trends of these nations due to the changes in politics, economics, and religious aspirations. These countries have also experienced significant rise in population and their GDP has also increased within the last decade. This paper aims at exploiting the differences between these countries and what has led to their significant success or failures. The paper focuses on the geographical location, economic resources, political ideologies and other factors that have led to sharp disparities observed now. Politics in Russia and Eurasia Amongst the 6 countries, Russia is the largest with a territory of 17,098,242 km2. US follows secondly with 9,826,675km2 followed by Uzbekistan with a territory of 447,400 km2 and fourthly by Poland with 312,685 km2. Georgia had the least territory of only 69,700 km2. Despite having such a small territory Georgia has a long history which saw the country participate in the Russia-Georgia War. In addition to this, Russia as the headquarters of the Soviet Union has had a long and bitter history with the US. The Russia-Georgian war can be traced down into 3 major sections. First is the Military security between the two countries, political influence of which both countries wanted to rule over South Ossetia and Tshhnvali and the history of natural resources such as gas and oil. The United States had supported Georgian President’s NATO membership. Therefore this motivated Georgia to continue fighting against Russia to break the influence that Russia has in that region. The Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili had come up with this move in early 2004 and had wanted to bring back South Ossetia to Georgian rule. Russia on the other hand was against the NATO membership since this meant that Georgia would not be an easy target for their influence. They saw the attack on Ossetia as an opportunity to impose their power and strength on Georgia to remind them of who is in power (Cornell). The United States could not intervene knowing how aggressive Russia was and could end up turning on to America. But the U.S president in 2005, George W. Bush, encouraged Mr. Saakashvili to continue with his plans and take heart. Georgian and Russian relations had been on the rocks from the time Russia assisted Ossetia to break away from Georgian rule. This relationship could not be mended since Russia saw Georgia as a threat because Georgia was the only former soviet state willing to stand against Russia in the face of war. The war between these two countries contributed the good relationship that Russia and Georgia have now. Both countries have also experienced good economic balancing due to their ability to produce oil which is an import resource which attracts the west. Countries like the US have also reaped from this peaceful conditions leading to prosperity. Moreover, Poland and the US have also shared a good political relations. In 2007, the US had plans to construct an anti-ballistic missile defense in Poland. However, Russia perceived this as a threat and reacted by testing intercontinental ballistsic missile. Irrespective of these countries size, Poland had the highest population density followed by Bulgaria. Ironically, Russia had the least population density something that can be traced to its economic power. From this data it is evident that countries with the highest population densities suffered economically. Countries like the US and Russia expressed the least population density hence their strong economic power. It is for this reason that the US still remain and economic Super Power having taken over from the Soviet whose headquarters was in Russia. Russia and Georgia have shown the decrease in population growth with the recent stats from the World Fact book. Russia has only experienced -0.03% population growth. However, the US and Uzbekistan are the only countries that have experienced a positive population growth of 0.933% and 0.77% respectively (Central Intelligence Agency). According to reliable sources from the World Factbook, the US had the highest urbanization rate by the year 2011. Similarly, the country had also the 2nd largest ethnic group. This is an indication of the high number of immigration and emigration in the US. This has also promoted the good economic growth that the country has experienced. This means that most people in the US live in urban areas and this plays a major role in exposing the community. For this reason they are able to experience good living standards. According to the Gallup International research in 2012, Georgia country perceives themselves as the most religious people with 84%. Most of the people in Georgia practice the Orthodox Christianity. From the World Factbook only 9.9% are Muslims. Due to this fact it has been possible for this country to maintain peace and prosperity. This also projects the reason behind political stability. Russia has the least religiosity of only 55% from this study. Ironically, the most of the population in Russia also practices Orthodox Christianity. Russia and USA are the only countries which had the largest percentage of parties. This showed the democratic maturity of these two countries. This also confirmed that the freedom of expression and democracy is largely practiced in these two countries hence their political and economic success. However, in relation to countries with more that 5% of the votes, Poland led with 5 parties while the US had the traditional Democrats and Republicans representation. Poland is therefore showing positive signs of democracy. Georgia also had only 2 parties having over 5% of the total votes. This is an indication of sharp disparity between the leading party and the opposition. This is usually a good sign since the opposition helps in keeping the leading party under check through various criticisms. It is important to understand that all these reports are according to the World Factbook latest updates. According to World Factbook, Uzbekistan has the highest ranking when it comes to executive official. Uzbekistan has been a communist country since 1925. However, the country changed into a democratic country and elected their first president in 1991. This is also the case with Bulgaria. President Islam Karimov has been the president since this time and has won 3 consecutive elections since a term last for 7 years. However, this has not been the case with Bulgaria where the current president is the 5th president since 1991. This is a sign of high democracy. According to most people all these elections were rigged. It is believed that this is the reason the country has not enjoyed significant rise in the economy due to one party rule and leadership. The third election was more controversial with people arguing that the constitution only allows for only two terms. However, Islam argued that the first term was still under the Communist constitution. According to him, this is his second term in office. In relation to life expectancy in all the countries the research indicates that all these countries enjoy a high percentage of life expectancy with the US leading with 79.56%. Russia is the least with 70.16%. Life expectancy is measured in terms of the healthcare services available in the country. With the introduction of Obama Care it is expected that citizens in the US would even enjoy a higher life expectancy rates. In relation to this, the US also enjoys the least infant mortality rates. This is related to the improvement in science and technology in the country. It also believed that the headquarters of Center for Disease Control (CDC) located in that country, and then infant mortality rates are greatly reduced. However, Uzbekistan shows the highest infant mortality rate amongst these countries with 19.84 children dying out of 1000 born. These results are as per 2014 World Factbook data. It is believed that the country is experiencing these challenges due to poor health care services and lack of improvement in science and technology. Attachment to culture and traditions is also believed to be contributing to high infant mortality rates. As expected the US had the highest GDP per Capita index by 2013. The country is regarded as the super power and one characteristic that is necessary to maintain this status is a good economic background something that the country has consistently enjoyed. Uzbekistan has the least GDP per capita index due to its central leadership structure with lack of proper administration (Central Intelligence Agency). In terms of electoral processes, the US received only 1 scores for conducting the least democratic elections. This is because of the tradition Republican and Democrats tag of war every electoral season. Uzbekistan enjoyed the highest vote for conducting the most democratic elections according to Freedom House data of 2013. According to the same research, Uzbekistan also received the highest votes for having the most independent media amongst the 6 countries. The US was still received the least votes in this category. The same research also listed the US as the most corrupt country only receiving 1 vote. Russian and Uzbekistan were voted the corruption free countries form this study. Uzbekistan and Georgia were voted the most fragile countries in terms of political stability. This reflection is in relation to the history the two countries. Georgia has been at the center of conflicts while Uzbekistan has also experienced civil uprising something that makes these two countries political stability more fragile. According to Human Rights Data Project, Russia has no physical integrity for its citizens while the US and Poland has the highest for the same. Conclusion It is evident that the different stats for each country play a significant role in determining the political, religious and economic strength of any country irrespective of its territorial size. This is seen in the case of US and Russia. From the stats we can also conclude that improvement of science and technology is important in supporting high living standards, high infant mortality rates, and urbanization rates. We also conclude that stable political systems in any country are important in promoting democracy and peaceful relations with other countries. Works Cited Bulgaria Infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/country/bulgaria.html) Center for Systemic Peace http://www.systemicpeace.org/inscr/SFImatrix2012c.pdf Central Intelligence Agency. GDP Official Exchange Rate. 6 June 2013. 2014 . Cornell, Svante. " "Georgia feels Russias heavy hand"." The Guardian (2009): 12-40. Gallup Internationa (http://www.wingia.com/web/files/news/14/file/14.pdf Nations in Transit (http://www.freedomhouse.org/report/nations-transit/2013/bulgaria#.UzFftNyGjwI The World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gg.html) Read More