Download The Russian Federation Learning objectives After reading this

The Russian Federation
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
1.
Trace the development of the Russian polity, and recount the various stages that ultimately led to the
foundation of the contemporary Russian Federation.
2.
Understand the broad outlines of the Soviet centrally planned economy and its extensive social
safety net.
3.
Analyze the impetus for reform of the Soviet system and the policies of perestroika, glasnost, and
demokratizatsiia.
4.
Explain the revolutionary transformation of the Soviet political system, from a single-party
communist system to a formal democratic system, and understand the basic outlines of Russia’s
political institutions.
5.
Understand the relative powers of the Russian president and prime minister, and explain the unique
mix of formal and informal actors involved in the policy-making process.
6.
Discuss the mixed electoral system used in Russia, describe the country’s major political parties and
their platforms, and understand the dominance of the United Russia Party.
7.
Understand the major challenges facing Russia for the future.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I.
II.
The Making of the Modern Russian State
A. Until 1917, Russia was ruled as an autocratic state by the tsar, with much of the population
living in conditions of serfdom dominated by nobles.
B. The 1917 Revolution established a communist regime characterized by democratic centralism,
under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, which established the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1922.
C. Joseph Stalin (1929–1953) established the basic characteristics that would govern the Soviet
state until the collapse of the communist system in 1991.
D. Under Mikhail Gorbachev (1985–1991), the Soviet Union underwent a comprehensive reform
process including perestroika, glasnost, and demokratizatsiia, which ultimately led to the end
of communism.
E. Russia is now a formal democracy, but one with significant tensions and fault lines, including
emerging domination by the United Russia Party under presidents Vladimir Putin (1999–2008)
and Dmitry Medvedev (2008–present).
Political Economy and Development
A. During the Soviet period, land, factories, and all significant productive assets were state
owned. The Soviet model was characterized by rapid industrialization, provision of mass
social welfare benefits, high levels of education, and low levels of inequality.
B. Inefficiency and the top-heavy nature of economic planning undermined the long-term
viability of the Soviet economic model and led to perestroika and glasnost during the 1980s.
C. Beginning in 1992, Boris Yeltsin initiated radical market reforms and economic shock therapy,
which while relatively successful in macroeconomic terms, have increased inequality primarily
as a result of the process of “insider privatization” and the elimination of the traditionally
extensive social safety net.
D.
President Putin initiated a series of economic reforms in 2000 that significantly improved the
economy, however it continues to be dominated by oligarchs and dependent on oil production
and other natural resources.
III. Governance and Policy-Making
A. Though during the Soviet period the constitution established many provisions traditionally
found in a democratic state, most of its principles were ignored, making it largely symbolic.
B. Although liberal ideas underwrote early movements toward democracy in post-Soviet Russia,
the expansion of presidential power under Putin and Medvedev has undermined many of these
democratic principles.
C. Though the Russian constitution, adopted in 1993, established a semipresidential system
modeled on France, the primary locus of power and policy-making in Russia is the presidency
because of its formal and decree powers.
D. Russia is organized along the lines of asymmetrical federalism, in which different regions have
varying privileges within the Russian Federation.
E. The contemporary Russian policy-making process is much more complex than others analyzed
in the text, involving extensive interaction between myriad formal and informal actors.
IV. Representation and Participation
A. Parliamentary power is constrained in the Russian system, primarily by the power of the
president, but also because the fragmented multiparty system failed to produce parliamentary
majorities until the emergence of the United Russia Party.
B. The Duma (the lower house of parliament) has 450 members chosen through a proportional
representation system (a reform of the previous German-style mixed system, which was
employed until 2007).
C. Although the immediate post-Communist Party system was very fractionalized and lacked a
majority political party, United Russia has emerged as politically dominant on regional and
national levels.
D. Observers have increasingly questioned the fairness of elections in Russia, as various types of
political control limit the ability of opposition parties to gain support, compete in elections,
and exert other forms of political power.
V. Russian Politics in Transition
A. Increasingly, Russia is moving toward soft authoritarianism.
B. Russia will have to face a series of challenges as it moves forward with its process of
democratization and the deepening of a market economy. The state must act especially to limit
the power of entrenched economic interests, like the oligarchs, and deal with severe disparities
of wealth and income.
C. The threat of terrorism has markedly increased in Russia with a series of disturbing tragedies
since the fall of the Soviet Union.
D. Internationally, Russia must take measures to make its economy attractive to foreign investors
and to define its new international role.
E. In terms of international political power, one of Russia’s main challenges is to reestablish itself
as a respected regional leader in neighboring countries.
Glossary
1. market reform
A strategy of economic transformation that involves reducing
the role of the state in managing the economy and increasing
the role of market forces.
2. asymmetrical
federalism
A form of federalism in which some subnational units in the
federal system have greater or lesser powers than others.
3. civil society
A term that refers to the space occupied by voluntary
associations outside the state, for example, professional
associations, trade unions, and student groups.
4. clientelistic
networks
Informal systems of asymmetrical power in which a powerful
patron (e.g., the president, prime minister, or governor) offers
less powerful clients resources, benefits, or career advantages
in return for support, loyalty, or services.
5. collectivization
A process undertaken in the Soviet Union under Stalin from
1929 into the early 1930s and in China under Mao in the
1950s, by which agricultural land was removed from private
ownership and organized into large state and collective farms.
6. democratic
centralism
A system of political organization developed by V. I. Lenin
and practiced, with modifications, by all communist partystates. Its principles include a hierarchical party structure.
7. dominant party
A political party that manages to maintain consistent control
of a political system through formal and informal mechanisms
of power, with or without strong support from the population.
8. federal system
A political structure in which subnational units have
significant independent powers; the powers of each level are
usually specified in the federal constitution.
9. glasnost
Gorbachev’s policy of “openness,” which involved an easing
of controls on the media, arts, and public discussion.
10. insider
privatization
The transformation of formerly state-owned enterprises into
jointstock companies or private enterprises in which majority
control is in the hands of employees and/or managers.
11. joint-stock
companies
Business firms whose capital is divided into shares that can be
held by individuals, groups of individuals, or governmental
units.
12. mafia
A term borrowed from Italy and widely used in Russia to
describe networks of organized criminal activity.
13. nomenklatura
A system of personnel selection in the Soviet period under
which the Communist Party maintained control over the
appointment of important officials in all spheres of social,
economic, and political life.
14. oligarchs
A small group of powerful and wealthy individuals who
gained ownership and control of important sectors of Russia’s
economy in the context of privatization of state assets in the
1990s.
15. patrimonial state
A system of governance in which the ruler treats the state as
personal property (patrimony).
16. power vertical
A term introduced by Vladimir Putin when he was president to
describe a unified and hierarchical structure of executive
power ranging from the national to the local level.
17. privatization
voucher
A certificate worth 10,000 rubles (at various times between
four and twenty U.S. dollars) issued by the government to
each Russian citizen in 1992 to be used to purchase shares in
state enterprises undergoing privatization.
18. proportional
representation
(PR)
A system of electoral representation in which seats in the
legislative body are allocated to parties within multi-member
constituencies, roughly in proportion to the votes each party
receives in a popular election.
19. pyramid debt
A situation in which a government or organization takes on
debt obligations at progressively higher rates of interest in
order to pay off existing debt.
20. siloviki
Derived from the Russian word sil, meaning “force,” Russian
politicians and governmental officials drawn from the security
and intelligence agencies, special forces, or the military, many
of whom were recruited to important political posts under
Vladimir Putin.
21. soft
authoritarianism
A system of political control in which a combination of formal
and informal mechanisms ensure the dominance of a ruling
group or dominant party, despite the existence of some forms
of political competition and expressions of political
opposition.
22. sovereign
democracy
A concept of democracy articulated by President Putin’s
political advisor, Vladimir Surkov, to communicate the idea
that democracy in Russia should be adapted to Russian
traditions and conditions rather than based on Western
models.
23. state capture
The ability of firms to systematically turn state regulations to
their advantage through payoffs or other benefits offered to
state officials.
24. vanguard party
A political party that claims to operate in the “true” interests
of the group or class that it purports to represent, even if this
understanding doesn’t correspond to the expressed interests of
the group itself.