Vladimir Tismaneanu is professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His most recent book is The Devil in History: Communism, Fascism, and Some Lessons of the Twentieth Century (2012).
Since 1996, eight postcommunist authoritarian rulers have been ousted by “electoral revolutions.” Why have these not succeeded in other postcommunist countries?
The Arab events of 2011 may have some similarities to the wave of popular upheavals against authoritarianism that swept the Soviet bloc starting in 1989, but the differences are much…