ANTITHESIS
CALL TO ACCOUNT! Concept of Protest as Starting Point for Category of Accountability
Keywords: human rights and freedoms, protest, provocation, demonstration, manifestation, 2011–2013 protests
The intensification of protest actions at the turn and the beginning of the second decade of this century coincided with the beginning of a new wave of political development. Protestors’ slogans and statements give reason to associate their actions with a powerful enhancement of democratization process. However, a protest cognitive scheme itself remains far from clear for protest participants. The paper proposes reconstruction of the concepts of “provocation” and “protestation” dating back to the Roman law, analyzes forms of protest such as petition, demonstration, and manifestation, investigates the internal shape of the relevant notions and the development of their political meaning as well as their influence on the formation and development of practices and institutions of accountability.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-6-13
SPECIFIC FEATURES OF ANARCHIC DENIAL IN CONTEXT OF RUSSIAN LINGUISTIC WORLDVIEW
Keywords: anarchism, denial, Russian linguistic worldview, Bakunin, Kropotkin
The article is devoted to studying the enduring meanings of denial in the Russian anarchism that emerge at the intersection of language and culture. The analysis conducted by the author shows that many of the most significant features of the anarchic denial are dictated by the key concepts of the Russian linguistic worldview. At the same time the article demonstrates that the meanings of anarchic denial are conditioned on the wider context. In particular, the expression “destruction is creation” is based on the mythological idea of generating chaos, which represents a certain cultural universal.
RUSSIAN POLITY
Leonid Bliakher, Mikhail Bliakher
MYTHOLOGY OF MANAGEMENT Ministry Policy vs. Universities Policy: Dynamics of Confrontation
Keywords: political myth, discourse, higher education, informal practices
Despite all the differences in the political climate in Russia in the 2000s and in the 2010s there is an important overarching feature – almost maniac passion of state structures for introducing norms and regulations. At most various levels, from the local to the national, authorities seek the possible strongest control over all actors located on the territory under their jurisdiction. Focusing their attention on the ideological justification of this attitude by the governors and a response to such justification by the governed, the authors show how stable semantic complexes (myths), which guide the governors, manifest themselves when confronted with the governed reality. The clash between reality and mythology of political management is analyzed on the example of the Russian system of higher education.
RUSSIAN REGIONS
Keywords: extremist groups, “Caucasus Emirate”, Internet resources, North Caucasus
The tension arising from the activities of the radical Islamist groups has remained in the North Caucasus for already two decades. Constant reproduction of the criminal underground is to a large extent due to the active use by extremist groups of modern means of communication, which facilitates solving the task of creating and maintaining a layer of sympathizers who serve as a base for recruiting new militants. On the basis of analyzing the content of Internet websites linked to the organization “Caucasus Emirate”, E.Zhirukhina traces the impact of the specificity of extremists’ influence upon the potential audience revealing a series of narratives aimed at forming a culture of violence that they start to perceive as the only way to solve the problems facing the region.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-47-60
MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS IN RUSSIA: FACTORS OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION EFFICIENCY
Keywords: municipal elections, modern Russian politics, political communication efficiency
The article examines factors of electoral political communication efficiency at municipal elections in the modern Russia. The empirical base of the study is represented by the data on the elections to the Chelyabinsk City Duma held March 1st, 2009. The employment of the multiple regression analysis method allowed the author to identify two models of achieving the best results at the municipal elections: voter turnout maximization through the administrative leverage under the conditions of non-protest and “ignorant” (voting with random motives) electorate dominance and minimization of the election campaign intensity. N.Tregubov concludes that both of these models imply eradicating democratic nature of the election process.
IDEOLOGIES
CONCEPT OF FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS AS “HALF” OF IDEOLOGY
Keywords: ideology, false consciousness, intelligentsia, intellectuals, elitism, new ideocratic class
The article discusses the concept of ideology as false consciousness, the foundations of which were laid in the works by K.Marx, F.Engels, K.Mannheim, and A.Gramsci. It is shown that, being originally formulated in the interests of the proletariat, it objectively cleared the way for another class – the class of intellectuals (managers, experts) or even a “new ideocratic class”. Thus, this concept itself is consistent with Engels’ definition of ideology as a thinking process performed without understanding its true impelling motives, i.e. ideology as false consciousness. However, this concept de facto was a starting point for this new class’ gaining self-consciousness having paved the way for theories of demise of ideology, knowledge society, post-industrial society, and perhaps for many others.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-70-79
“ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION” BY FICHTE: NATION, PEOPLE, AND LANGUAGE
Keywords: Fichte, nation, people, language, national self-consciousness, nationalism
On the basis of the analysis of the “Addresses to the German Nation” and the context of their appearance, A.Teslya concludes that the starting point for explaining Fichte’s nationalist doctrine should be the situation of philosophizing rather than the internal logic of the idea. Fichte’s study of law and morality gave birth to the doctrine of the nation that ideally should have been identical to the people, which implied excluding from the people those who are not able to enter it. It is the impossibility to form such nation by purely political means that led to the need for establishing a non-political ground, “nation in formation” as cultural affinity. Teslya views the resulting national-democratic doctrine as revolutionary and emphasizes that its implementation in reality assumed a radical change in the order of things, a certain religious overthrow, where the “German nation” appeared as the “Chosen People”.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-80-91
Alexander Mishura, Alexander Pavlov
“PATRIARCHA”: POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF ROBERT FILMER
Keywords: Robert Filmer, John Locke, political theory, patriarcha, natural law
The name of Robert Filmer remained in the history of political philosophy largely due to the first of the “Two Treatises of Government” by John Locke, and outside the narrow circle of specialists he is known primarily as Locke’s “punching bag”. Having thoroughly analyzed the content of the main work by Filmer and the context of its creation, A.Mishura and A.Pavlov show that the arguments of the author of “Patriarcha” deserve attention without regard to Locke. However, the analysis of these arguments necessitates taking into account those political goals, for which Filmer built his theoretical schemes. It is in the light of the context in which he wrote “Patriarcha” that Filmer’s thought may appear at least as political journalism relevant to its time, if not as political philosophy.
PARADIGMS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Vladimir Avatkov, Tatiana Tyukaeva
ABOUT CALIPHATE AND GEOPOLITICS IN MODERN ARAB-ISLAMIC REGION
Keywords: Greater Middle East, geopolitics, Islam, caliphate
The large-scale destabilization caused by the so-called “Arab Spring” served as a trigger of another realignment of the spheres of influence within the geopolitical space of the Greater Middle East. The analysis conducted by the authors shows that the main competitors in the struggle for dominance in the Arab-Islamic world are Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran that in order to fulfill their regional ambitions, in addition to the economic and information tools, actively employ ideology building a trans-regional network of defense centers (“caliphates”). The authors concluded that the process of constructing such networks determines and will continue to determine the parameters of interaction-confrontation among the regional players, and the intensity of confrontation in the region will only increase in the coming years.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-106-118
“ARAB SPRING”: TECHNOLOGIES OF REBELLION
Keywords: “Arab Spring”, social protest, technologies of rebellion
The article considers events in the North Africa and Middle East that are known under the common term “Arab Spring”, from the viewpoint of technologies for managing social protest with the purpose of capturing political power. After analyzing the reasons for the “Arab Spring”, its driving forces, dynamics of protest actions and their consequences, the authors come to the conclusion that what was happening in the region was a spontaneous riot that guided politicians rather than a revolution. According to their assessment, the events of the "Arab Spring" demonstrated, most importantly, a possibility of launching an active social protest, transforming it into a mass form and using it for achieving political outcomes.
FOREIGN POLICY PERSPECTIVE
IMAGES OF SOUTH OSSETIA AND KOSOVO IN RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY DISCOURSE
Keywords: Kosovo, South Ossetia, image, discourse, discourse analysis, unrecognized states, Russia's foreign policy
The article presents the results of a comprehensive comparative semiotic analysis of images of South Ossetia and Kosovo in the Russian foreign policy discourse. Having studied in detail semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects of the representation of these state entities in the official Russian texts, I.Fomin shows how the fact of state recognition/non-recognition affects discursively constructed images and which discursive means similar secession situations can be differentiated with.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-128-143
BULGARIA – RUSSIA: ENERGY INDUSTRY, BUSINESS, AND POLITICS
Keywords: Bulgaria, Russia, energy policy, transit, infrastructure projects
The article is devoted to the analysis of the twists and turns in the Russian-Bulgarian energy dialogue after the collapse of the world socialist system. Having emphasized a lot of difficulties in the economic as well as political realm in the relations between Bulgaria and Russia, K.Denchev, however, shows that the deepening of cooperation in the energy sector not only meets the interests of both countries, but also opens up the way for the global energy security.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-72-1-144-156
GUBERNATORIAL READINGS
Keywords: human resources policy, professionalism, human resources potential, Tyumen region
The material published here is a report on the Fifteenth Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, December 17th, 2013, under the framework of the joint project conducted by the journal Politeia and the administration of Tyumen region with the topic of the readings being human resources policy and human resources security in the Russian Federation and a lecturer – A.I.Turchinov, Director of the Institute of Public Service and Personnel Management of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Head of the Department of Public Service and Personnel Policy at RANEPA.
ACADEMIA
Andrey Blinov, Darya Talagaeva
SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY AS POLITICAL ACTOR: ROLE OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATIONS
Keywords: scientific community, political actor, international scientific organizations
This article discusses the structure and main directions of the activities of international scientific organizations. The authors emphasize two basic approaches to organizing scientific space – competitive financing procedure with the focus on universities and institutional support for research organizations – and discusses their advantages and disadvantages.
BOOK REVIEW
Keywords: right-wingers, parliament, conservatism, State Duma, State Council
Expressing high opinion about the reviewed work, A.Kotov emphasizes that the new monograph by the historian from Petersburg is the first study that covers the activity of right-wing factions in two representative institutions of the old Russia simultaneously. The book touches upon most different aspects of political activity of the conservatives in the beginning of the 20th century – ranging from the “sacred union” and assistance to the front line in 1914 to the fates of the last defenders of the monarchy after the revolution. The Russian right-wingers appear in the book as extraordinary political force that lost due to their tragic loyalty to the doomed Russian authorities rather than their ineptitude.