Between Democracy and Autocracy: Towards an Understanding of the Nature of Incomplete Secession, the Case of Moldova-Transnistria

Abstract

Defending democracy against its adversaries when the challenges to its statehood have endured for over two decades has placed the Republic of Moldova in a unique context of incomplete secession. With the persistence of parallel claims to authority in the unrecognised state of Transnistria, different processes of electoral legitimisation have taken place in the two entities, often leading to escalation. These are addressed in this essay to reveal the way in which the metropolitan and de facto state have sought to implement distinctive policies towards counter-secession and secession respectively, argueing that this can only be understood if one moves beyond a simple democracy/autocracy dichotomy.