The editor of Zhamanak daily Arman Babajanyan in his analyses discusses the claim that Armenia is trapped in an “institutional snare” and there seems to be now way out.
Babajanyan states the main paradox of assessing the perception of democracy by the public is that for the last decade, it didn’t expect any mass anti-democracy as such. As he explains, the post-Soviet transformation of the predominant values immediately was presented to remote from the “deficit from the public” and get closer to the western consumer markets. This was what pointed the extreme consuming level of the values and the private consuming sector, Babajanyan argues.
2000-s as Babajanyan explains fully satisfied the comprehensions of democracy through the development and the “emotional needs” of the public. This situation was suitable for the government of the time too. So what, is the deduction true that Armenia stuck in a corruption of an institutional trap. Babajanyan argues the only means out of this situation is the amelioration of the economy, to be more concrete the problems today’s authorities have in economic sector. The incumbent ruling authority also has the problem of “staying alive” and to cling to power, thus it has to be transformed to a new generation with new economic proposals and new capital. To achieve this it has to first of all solve the intra-elite issues and leave more free space for free market, let the economy in the country breathe.
This will perhaps give a path for the development of the true and not the imitative of the “institutional opposition” and multiparty layer.
Babajanyan concludes only in this case the sector of the society not having a direct dependence on the state budget will provide a democratic base for further development preventing a strong hand being a ruler over it. The political democratization in this case may be the result of the ruling authorities, public and redistribution economy elaboration. This is not a bad option if the issue of Armenia having a concrete scheme to development is clarified.
