Russian regions
«Centre - regions » relations in 1997-1998: between conflict and consensus
The elections of the heads of the executive power bodies in Russian regions have created an absolutely new background for the further relations between the centre and the subjects of the federation. The governors enjoy the legitimacy proved by the popular elections and thus they feel their responsibility before the voters. The current situation makes them conduct an independent socio-economic policy and protect themselves against the interference of Moscow. The federal centre in its turn tries to get adapted to the new situation and looks for a new strategy of relations with the regions.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-5-32
Pages: 5-32
Regional political elites: change of generations
Traditional soviet elites today undergo serious transformations. The nomenclatura principle of their formation is gradually getting a matter of the past though the innovations are rather evolutionary than revolutionary by nature. The events of August 1991 have accelerated the process of the new people coming to power and they occupied key positions in the structures of representative and executive branches of power in a number of regions. However in most cases «the newcomers» are responsible to the «old guard» and the tendency is getting ever stronger.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-33-49
Pages: 33-49
Governors’ «parties of the power» as a new public phenomenon
The article considers a principally new phenomenon in the system of regional management organisation - the governors’ «parties of the power». These are the political coalitions headed by the governors that provide control over the regions, give the resources for the relations with the centre and guarantee favourable conditions for the re-election. The author analyses the internal regional and national conditions of the formation of such parties and their activity, classifies the «parties of the power» and defines the factors that influence their vitality.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-50-58
Pages: 50-58
Russia on its Way to Succession: discussion
Legality, Legitimacy and Succession as Problems of Russian Present Statehood
The article by Alexey Salmin is a sort of introduction to the discussion «Russia on its way to succession» that is being initiated by the POLITEIA. The author shows that in spite of the fact that system of constitutional institutes of power has emerged in the Russia of today, the state construction was not completed. The state repeatedly fails to express its essence, in other words, to create a system of simple and adoptable convictions,images and taboos, that could be passed from one generation to another; for the self-preservation of the society it is at least as important as state institutions in a narrow sense of the word.
Russia lacks legally adopted symbolics, (the motto, the anthem, the State Emblem ) , as well as the party system in the proper sense of the word and the convictions that would be shared by the majority of the society. The problem is that in March 1917 the organic legal evolution was interrupted in Russia - and 80 years after the question arises: what legal tradition has Russia inherited? what should be its state-legal base?
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-59-67
Pages: 59-67
Succession and Russian Authorities: History and the Present
The problem of legal succession is analysed in the article in historic and legal dimension. The author considers the process of Russia’s getting beyond its historic legal order framework in 1917. The legal order is also being analyses in the context of the nature of Russian Authority. Special attention is given to the issue of the translation of authority. The author considers the succession to be both a historic task and a condition of social concord in Russia.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-68-80
Pages: 68-80
Can the Traditional Legal Order Make Up a Base for the New Russian Statehood?
The present day Russian state from the legal point of view is the heir-at-law of the USSR and the RSFSR. All laws that were adopted between 1917-1991 are still valid unless they were abrogated by the new laws. However the communist regime that was set up as a result of the capture of power by force and preserved the power for 70 years has no legal base at all. This was a juridical fiction. Ergo: the present-day regime can be either considered as totally illegitimate or as having a limited legitimacy. During the referendum of December,12, 1993 the Russian society had no idea about its legal status and the authorities did not bother to explain this status to the citizens, thus neither the Referendum itself, nor the Constitution that was adopted can be considered state-forming. Strictly adhering to the juridical notions, we have to admit that the only legitimate base in the present-day Russia is the Code of Laws of the Russian Empire that had never been referred to as acting Law by the reformers.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-81-115
Pages: 81-115
Foreign Policy Dimensions
Eastern horizons of the European policy of Germany
For several decades within the Yalta-Potsdam system the «German problem » was the key problem of European security and the division of Germany was a sort of symbol of the post-war epoch. The fall of the Berlin wall has symbolised the end of the epoch the beginning of which was marked by the emerge of the «iron curtain». Today everybody seems to be satisfied with the solution of the «German problem».Time will show if this situation can be stable or not.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-116-135
Pages: 116-135
Pacific Dimension of Russia’s Foreign Policy
The author considers the role played by Russian foreign policy towards China, Japan and divided Korea and places this policy in the context of the controversial and contradictory development of Russian foreign policy overall. Moscow is once again trying to play the «China card». Russia’s «China first» policy, which places a stronger emphasis on military factors, has come the most important factor. Russia’s assessment of China is, however, a controversial issue. Russia currently plays a marginal role in Asia and continued Russian influence is due more to its own problems than to its power. Only by over coming its internal crisis does Russia have a chance to strengthen its position in the APR.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-136-145
Pages: 136-145
The author analyses the results of the international conference organised by the «Russian Public Policy Centre» Foundation (Moscow, Russia), by the Project on Ethnic Relations (Princeton, USA) and the Administration of the Novgorod region that took place May 15-16, 1998 in the city of Veliky Novgorod. Politicians, public figures and experts from Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and other countries discussed the problems of integration of the Baltic states into European economic, political and military structures, the security of Russia’s western borders and the position of Russian communities in Baltic states. The presentations of the speakers have reflected the variety of points of view to the Baltic problems that exist in the modern world.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-146-156
Pages: 146-156
Public Expertise
The author provides a comparative analyses of views on possible approaches to the enhancement of representation of women in the power structures of modern Russia. Female leaders and activists of more than twenty NGOs, female prominent political leaders (deputies of the State Duma included), representatives of the regions and scholars, participated in the discussion on the invitation of the Russian Public Policy Centre Foundation. During the «round table» the international experience of introduction of the quota representation was discussed; the participants of the discussion considered its positive and negative results and its applicability in the present-day Russia.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-157-161
Pages: 157-161
Reflections over the read
The author reviews the book of an Austro-British researcher and intellectual, the Nobel Prize winner Elias Canetti «The mass and the power». The method Canetti uses in the political studies can be qualified as some sort of biological (or anthropological) political science. Canetti leaves aside the temporary, dimensional and geographic framework and considers the modern epoch only as a link in the chain of human history; thus he singles out the mechanism of interaction of the masses and the power that has existed for centuries. In the author’s view human nature is the main threat for the future of the humanity.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-162-175
Pages: 162-175
Appendix
Tendencies in the party life of Russia (winter-spring 1997-1998)
Yuri Kargunyuk quotes the data that reflects the dynamics of the party life in Russia (Winter-spring 1997-1998) and gives the chronological report of the main political events.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-1998-7-1-176-197
Pages: 176-197