Paradigms of Social Development
SICK WORLD AWAITING TREATMENT PROCEDURES
Keywords: knots of shocks, globalization, world structure, urgent measures, long-term consequences
Proceeding with the topics touched upon in the previous article (see Politeia. 2012. ¹ 1), A.Galkin describes and justifies the complex of measures that should be taken in order if not to prevent, but at least to minimize threats hanging over the world. According to the author’s conclusion, due to the universal belatedness of the reaction against emerging challenges that made their overcoming extremely difficult and due to the obvious deficit of time that is now at manhood’s disposal, the acute issue on the agenda is not only about the elaboration of measures for the long-term perspective, but also the so called socio-political “first aid” that is capable of precluding further exacerbation of disease.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-65-2-5-19
Keywords: national identity, state, nation, Rokkan, South-Eastern Europe
n H.Best’s article the Russian version of which we introduce to the readers the author is testing the hypothesis that the “invention” or the “construction” of mass identities is not an arbitrary process of first composing and then imposing a narrative of the “sameness”, “belongingness” or “common destiny” to some population, but that it is constrained and directed by specific historical givens and experiences shaping the collective memories and conditions of living of the same population. When it comes to national identities it is the processes of state formation and nation building that leave a specific and inextinguishable trace in the collective mind. Disagreeing with the notion that national identity is an outcome of a mere “availability of ideas” at the time of its formation, the author views it as the result of a targeted response to a challenge posed to a collectivity of people at a critical juncture of a nation’s historical development.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-65-2-20-43
POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS: BLOCKING OR PROMOTING INNOVATIONS?
Keywords: innovational system of Russia, “resource course”, institutions, elite, science, scientists
On the basis of the analysis of the innovation production process through the prism of institutional design and rational choice theories D.Balalaeva demonstrates that if the established institutional design aiming at protecting the status quo stays intact, the innovational system of Russia will not develop any further. Breaking through this stalemate necessitates socio-economic changes that will exert influence upon the initial distribution of power in the society and as a result will alter elitist preferences. According to the author, this process might be accelerated through the collective action undertaken by the civil society and, in particular, by the Russian scientists, aiming at the protection of intellectual property rights and improvement of science status within the society.
Antithesis
DOUBLE PORTRAIT: BREZHNEV–GORBACHEV (I)
Keywords: Brezhnev, Gorbachev, epoch, national issue, cold war, détente, perestroika
Is it an accident that at certain time periods cut by the history it is L.I.Brezhnev and M.S.Gorbachev that became heads of the country? Of course, no. The very fact that both personalities significantly impacted the life of the state and society shows that they were in demand from inside as well as from outside and they were integrated with the nation under those conditions. Without knowing, at least at the approximate level, what kind of people they were it is impossible to imagine the more or less real picture of those times. In the essay by A.Chernyaev written on the basis of his personal memories, the author, who worked within Brezhnev’s group of speechwriters and consultants for more than 10 years and who, after Gorbachev came to power, became his assistant on international affairs, touches upon the whole number of topics that allow to better understand these people as individuals and politicians and to look into their “nitty-gritty of politics”. In the first part of the essay published in this issue the author talks about personal qualities of two leaders, discusses their positions regarding national issue and problems of “war and peace”, and assesses their foreign political activity.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-65-2-60-88
Keywords: virtue ethics, principles ethics, moral, capitalism, ideology, utopia
In the article the author conducts comparative analysis of the substantial characteristics of principles ethics and virtue ethics and explains the reasons for the recently emerged tendency of shifting the emphasis on the latter. Tying the return to virtue ethics with the loss of “grand theories”, ideologies and utopias being capable of forming “the spirit of capitalism” that will be acceptable for people, at the same time criticizing the latter and justifying it L.Fishman views in it an attempt to find a substitute for those methods of reproducing social fabrics that earlier provided for the formation of the “big society” that is necessary for capitalism to function.
CIS – TERRA INCOGNITA: POLITICAL PROCESSES IN FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
ETHNO-POLITICAL STRATEGIES OF EXPLORING URBAN SPACE IN REPUBLIC OF KAZAKHSTAN IN XXI CENTURY
Keywords: urbanization, urban space, state language, Russians, “urban” Kazakhs, “aul” Kazakhs, ethnic returnees
The article is devoted to the analysis of the latest tendencies in forming urban space in Kazakhstan. On the basis of the analysis of the key candidates for this space A.Alekseenko draws the conclusion that today the leading role in this process belongs to the rural descendants that historically lack in the relevant experience and partly ethnic returnees. At the same time the research carried out by the author demonstrates that the Europeanized urban space of the republic is autonomous and self-sufficient enough to make move-ins follow its rules of the game, and despite the numerous programs on resurrection of the Kazakh language it increasingly slides into the sphere of everyday communications.
Historical Retrospective: Reflections and Hypotheses
Keywords: German nationalism, Moeller van den Bruck, “Eastern ideology”, Russophilism, “revolutionary conservatism”
The article analyzes perceptions of Russia of that part of the German intellectual elite of the 1910s – beginning of the 1920-s whose beliefs combined radical German nationalism with the more or less brightly expressed Russophilism. The reasons for and the essence of such pro-Russian feelings are considered by the example of A.Moeller van den Bruck who significantly contributed to the consolidation within the German intellectual circles of the myth about the “Sacred Russia” as the religious commonality of the supreme order. Tracing the evolution of this image S.Allenov shows its permanent anti-Western nature. In all its guises Russia served for Moeller and like minded persons as a mere antipode of the liberal Europe that they loathe, and their plans about the German-Russian alliance in the framework of the peaceful “push eastward” were a reaction against the German fiasco in the West. Together with the motto “People without Space” these plans, although they possessed predominantly cultural-philosophical rationale, obtained sinister political meaning and pointed the direction of the far from peaceful German expansion.
Laboratory
Keywords: elections, electoral frauds, competitive authoritarianism
In the article the author tests the efficiency of the existing methods of diagnosing electoral frauds and justifies an alternative approach towards solving this task. The method offered by the author that is based on the values of U-intersections and b-coefficients of the linear regression models of how share of voices received by candidates depends on turnout allows to rather accurately determine the volume of fraud data and therefore, the real level of support for candidates. This method provides an opportunity not only to proceed with research in the sphere of electoral frauds, but also to answer a broader theoretical question: is the enormous margin by which authoritarian incumbents win over their closest rivals a consequence of the public support for the corresponding regimes or is it trivial frauds that pervert expression of voters’ will?
Gubernatorial readings
Ninth Gubernatorial Readings
Keywords: strategy, globalization, technological entrepreneurship, Tyumen region
The material published here is a report on the Ninth Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, May 17th, 2012, under the framework of the joint project conducted by the journal Politeia and the administration of Tyumen region with the topic being country-level and regional strategies of choosing position within the global economy and a lecturer being I.R.Agamirzyan, Director General of the Russian Venture Company, Co-Chair of the expert group on the renewal of the “Strategy-2020” “Transition from stimulating innovations towards growth on their basis”.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-65-2-155-174
Eighth Gubernatorial Readings
STATE POTENTIAL AND DEMOCRACY (Eighth Gubernatorial Readings. Tyumen, April 10th, 2012.)
Keywords: state, democracy, Charles Tilly, capacity, mass media, Tyumen region
The material published here is a report on the Eighth Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, April 10th, 2012, under the framework of the joint project conducted by the journal Politeia and the administration of Tyumen region with the topic being correlation between state and democracy and a lecturer being V.A.Fadeyev, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Expert, Director of the Institute for Social Projections, Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, President of the All-Russian Organization of Mass Media Employees “MediaUnion”.
Book Review
Keywords: opposition, parliament, constitutional-legal status, rules of game, institutionalization
Highly appreciating the book by S.V.Vasilyeva as the first attempt in the Russian science of the legal analysis of political opposition, A.Medushevsky at the same time does not share the author’s optimistic belief in the legal norm, especially in the case of the contemporary Russia where the relationship between power and opposition are built in the field of making opportunistic political decisions rather than within law. According to his opinion, under the conditions of trust crisis towards political parties the road to building full-fledged democracy should be found in the transition towards non-party democracy and broad socio-political coalitions that adequately reflect new challenges and tendencies of globalizing world rather than returning to traditional parties with their rigorous and authoritarian structure.