Russian Polity
Keywords: liberalism, Westernism, image of liberalism, discursive construction of mass perceptions
The article analyses the process of discursive construction of the image of “liberalism” in post-Soviet Russia. In accordance with the reputational approach, liberals are defined as those who call themselves liberal or cast as such by contemporaries. Based on the analysis of texts written by “liberals” and their critics, O.Malinova proves that the crisis that liberalism faces today is partly a consequence of its original mould of the 1990s. In the modern Russia liberalism is strongly associated with Westernism, obsession with the market economic reforms, paternalist approach to the illiberal majority, criticism of the authoritarian regime and renunciation of imperial ambitions. In the context of the political and ideological shifts of the 2000s and especially 2010s, this configuration of “initial” constructions played a fatal role in the formation of a negative image of liberalism in the eyes of Russians.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-84-1-6-28
Neoconservative Consensus in Russia? Main Components, Factors of Stability, Potential for Erosion
Keywords: “Fortress Russia”, conservatism, ideological struggle, traditional values, geopolitics
The article analyzes the main substantive components, factors of stability and the potential for erosion of the politico-ideological consensus established in the modern Russia. On the one hand, A.Melville documents the extraordinary strength of this consensus, buttressed by the powerful factors such as the long-term position of power holders, support from the elitist and bureaucratic circles, effective propaganda with a strong mobilizational impact, conservative orientation of the middle class and dominating mass attitudes. On the other hand, the author draws attention to a number of not-so-obvious factors that could turn the tide in the long term, such as volatility of mass sentiments, possible alterations within the elite groups, as well as the internal flaws of the modern neoconservative idea.
Political Theories
Keywords: rationality, ontology, values, Political Science, evolution of concepts, Enlightenment
The paper puts forward a hypothesis that it is distribution of social statuses that sets criteria for what is rational in social reality. The corporation views as reasonable something that contributes to its expansion into the semantic space of the society as a whole, and deems unreasonable something that prevents such expansion. At an individual’s level, reasonable is something that contributes to one’s attainment of social status. To support his statement in more details, K.Koktysh refers to the analysis of the formation and transformation of the languages of Political Science because it is Political Science that from the moment if its inception claimed to determine whether this or the other knowledge can be viewed as rational, either legitimizing its introduction into the social structure, or, on the contrary, declaring it a prejudice. The history of Europe has witnessed several such languages that replaced one another. In the concluding part of the article published in this issue (for the first three parts see Politeia, 2016, ¹ 2, ¹ 3 and ¹ 4), the author analyzes the evolution of concepts in the epoch of Enlightenment.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-84-1-46-71
Political Economy of Social System: Connections, Relations and Organization
Keywords: system, network, community, organization, historical evolution, relations, capital, power, growth, transformation
The article explains the model of organization of society as an evolving, complex dynamic system that consists of politico-economic relations. The author argues that politico-economic institutions are social connections between communities that exist in real time, and should be analyzed, among other angles, from the point of view of social theory and history. Methodologically, research is based on interpreting social networks as a metastable self-enforcing system that activates and blocks its communicative properties in real time. The analysis of the historical evolution of the political and economic organization of society, which dynamics is predetermined by the fractal structure of relations of communities, reveals that all forms of politico-economic relations are fundamentally united and differ only in the sequence of social connections.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-84-1-72-92
Political Space Between Formal Rules and Real Capabilities: Problem of Multitudinous Representation
Keywords: heterotopia, political representation, Cosmopolis, theory of multitude
The contradiction between formal rights and real capabilities of individuals is one of the important factors that increases social inequality. The article attempts to conceptualize the space of political representation that is neutral towards the diversity of people. To solve this problem, A.Aisin refers to the notion of heterotopia as a special type of space, aimed at the reproduction of social practices. The analysis conducted by the author shows that the theory of multitude as a self-organizing community does not contradict the idea of political representation and describes the logic of its spatial organization.
Paradigms of Social Development
Political Ontology of Modernity: in Search of Mercurial Majority
Keywords: majority, Modernity, political order, democracy, legitimation, bourgeoisie, working class, middle class, rental groups
The political order of Modernity has undergone a number of significant transformations due to the dynamics of the structure of the modern society, which changes its perception of a majority as an ontological basis of this political project. Majority has never been statistical. Rather, it has always been constructed on purpose by the leading political figures within the collective imagination of a society, being the subject of a dynamic consensus. The article discusses several historical constellations of a majority within the changing structure of the society of the Modernity, analyzes their strengthening and weakening factors. According to V.Martianov’s conclusion, the global political order is gradually losing the need to rely upon once-sacred concept of the will of the majority in order to be legitimate, which creates conditions for the establishment of non-democratic ways of legitimation.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-84-1-107-126
Andrey Korotayev, Stanislav Bilyuga, Alisa Shishkina
Keywords: socio-political destabilization, autocracy, democracy, political development, economic developmen
The article continues a series of works of the authoring team headed by A.Korotayev about the sources of social and political instability. The research conducted by the authors shows that the previously discovered statistically significant positive correlation between GDP per capita, PPP (in the range up to $20,000), and the intensity of anti-government demonstrations, is partly conditioned by the factors of education level and political regime. At the same time, these factors do not fully explain the identified correlation, indicating the need for further research.
Political Parties
Mechanism of Normative Power (Image of “the Other” and Party “Podemos”)
Keywords: normative power, European Union, Spain, Venezuela, “Podemos”, “the other”
On the basis of the theory of normative power, E.Pavlova analyzes specifics of the formation of the modern discourse of the European identity, where the classic image of “the other” has been gradually acquiring new features. By the example of the Spanish party “Podemos”, the article shows how the application of special schemes to overcome the “otherness”, which are inherent in the mechanism of normative power, makes it possible to simultaneously support two seemingly opposing regulatory blocks, the EU and Venezuela. The theoretical part of the article is based on the research studies devoted to the issue of the European identity, above all within the conception of normative power of Europe. The empirical part of the article presents discourse analysis of the key publications and statements made by the leaders of the “Podemos”.
Cathedra
Keywords: Constitutional Court, judicial politics, political regime, institutional environment
The article presents an overview of the main theoretical approaches to judicial politics revealing the impact of institutional and non-institutional factors. On the basis of the analysis of the existing theoretical models of judicial politics and the relationships between the court and key political players, the author hypothesizes that, despite common theoretical grounds, there is an important distinction between constitutional courts in authoritarian and democratic regimes. Under authoritarianism, judges possess fundamentally different expectations about the prospects for a regime change and therefore are guided by a different yardstick when building internal judicial institutions. While under democracies courts have to succumb to government needs only in some ad hoc cases, such as at times of highly consolidated power, under autocracies this has to be a stable institutional solution.
Gubernatorial readings
Keywords: East, China, Russian-Chinese relations, economic cooperation, strategic partnership, Tyumen region
The material published here is a report on the Twenty-Seventh Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, December 7th, 2016, under the joint project conducted by the journal Politeia and the administration of Tyumen region. The report is on what is happening in the Eastern world and how it affects opportunities and risks for Russia. The lecture is delivered by Yu.V.Tavrovsky, professor of The Peoples' Friendship University of Russia, a member of the Presidium of The Eurasian Academy of Television and Radio.