Abstracts № 2, 2014

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PARADIGMS OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Alexander Galkin

PUBLIC MOOD AND POLITICAL BEHAVIOR: CERTAIN TRENDS OF MODERN DEVELOPMENT

Keywords: public consciousness, public mood, political behavior

This article is devoted to the analysis of complex and contradictory processes that occur in mind, mood and political behavior of citizens of the relatively developed countries of the European area, including Russia. In contrast to the previous article (see Politeia, 2013, № 4), the authors’ contemplations do not focus as much on public consciousness that de facto represents a theoretical construct based on the understanding of patterns of formation and historical development of group interpersonal relations, but rather on public mood that constitutes the thinnest upper layer of such consciousness. The paper shows that it is public mood, which only indirectly reflects the structure of social consciousness and is highly susceptible to opportunistic influences that determines mass political behavior. Exploring the reasons for the observed shifts today in the public mood and political behavior, A.Galkin draws attention to such factors as the increasingly complex structure of the modern society, imperfection of the established mechanisms of power, economic turmoil and the growing gap between public consciousness and rapid changes in the conditions of existence.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-6-20


Leonid Isaev, Alisa Shishkina

SEDUCED BY REVOLUTION

Keywords: Ukraine, Arab world, Islam, protest, fitna, fauda

On the basis of the comparative analysis of the protests that swept countries of the North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 and Ukraine in 2013–2014, the authors conclude that these protest movements are fully consistent with the phenomenon referred to in the Arab political culture as “fitna” (strife, rebellion). Having fixed a whole array of parameters (heterogeneity of social composition and political attitudes of protest participants, ambiguity of their demands, unresponsiveness to rational arguments etc.) that make unrest in the Arab world and in Ukraine similar to the traditional “fitna”, L.Isaev and A.Shishkina also draw attention to the specific features of the modern “fitna” associated with the development of internet technologies. According to their conclusion, the emergence of fundamentally new means of mass communication alters the format of political activity in the world to such an extent that authorities are often unable to adequately assess a threat posed by protesters and thus, commit fatal errors.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-21-33

POST-SOVIET SPACE

Alexander Shvyrkov

UKRAINE: PATTERNS OF COLLAPSE

Keywords: paradigm, development, collapse, democracy, neopatrimonializm, Ukraine, “Euromaidan”

The article attempts to look at the processes that unfold in the post-Soviet states, especially in Ukraine, from the viewpoint of a paradigm that can be figuratively called a paradigm of collapse. In contrast to the paradigm of development that has dominated the European science during the recent centuries, according to which humanity is moving towards increasingly greater perfection, this paradigm assumes that each successive state of society is more primitive than the previous one. Starting with the hypothesis that the collapse of the Soviet Union has not ended yet (and is probably far from ending), A.Shvyrkov analyzes the Ukrainian realities showing that all the processes occurring in the economic, political and social spheres of the country, including those that, as it may seem, could be interpreted as processes of development, are not only incapable of “replacing” the process of collapse, but in some sense represent a part of this collapse.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-34-47


Alexander Alekseenko

ETHNICIZATION AND TRADITIONALIZATION OF SOCIO-POLITICAL SPACE OF KAZAKHSTAN

Keywords: Kazakhstan, civilization choice, modernization, urbanization, traditional values, urban space

After the collapse of the Soviet Union Kazakhstan faced two options for further sovereign development: “European” and “traditional”. The strategic government plans were built on the European socio-economic basis, whereas the titular population, which is for the most part rural, inclined to the traditional version. As a result, the compromise was taken as a basis – modernization relied upon the national specificity. Carefully analyzing the results of such choice, A.Alekseenko shows that its most important consequence was not simply mass urbanization of autochtons, but also a transfer of traditional views of yesterday's rural residents to the urban environment. Democratic “European” forms were gradually filled with the archaic content. At the same time, the urban space markedly deformed traditional values ​​of the Kazakhs. According to the author’s assessment, the intensive exploration of the urban space can lead to the loss of the foundations of the national culture, which immediately brings the issue of a possibility of coexistence of different civilization priorities in the socio-political space of the modern Kazakhstan to the forefront.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-48-69

RUSSIAN POLITY

Igor Okunev

INTERREGIONAL DIFFERENTIATION AS BASIS FOR RUSSIAN STATENESS FORMATION

Keywords: Russian stateness, center, periphery, semi-periphery, interregional differentiation

This article proposes and justifies a hypothesis that one of the key mechanisms of state-building in Russia was interregional differentiation based on the construction of the image of the internal “Other”. On the basis of the historical data, I.Okunev suggests that under the Russian conditions the formation of such image occurred through reproduction of semi-peripheries in the outlying areas of new colonization. This resulted in the following structure i.e., “center-periphery-semi-periphery”, and the country appeared to be “turned inside out” toward its far frontiers. Such mental structure that reflected priorities of state regional development did not coincide with the economic structure, in which the leading economic centers were located within the inland areas (primarily, in the Volga region, the Urals, and Siberia). The author concluded that it is the reason for the eternal dichotomy of territorial development of Russia oscillating between centralization and the need for regional development.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-70-83


Mikhail Turchenko

FROM MIXED TO MAJORITARIAN? On Logic of Regional Electoral Systems Changes in Modern Russia

Keywords: electoral system, electoral formula, regional elections, “United Russia”

This article analyzes reasons why the ruling circles in Russia changed regional electoral legislation reducing the minimum proportion of party-list deputies in regional legislatures to 25% of the total number of deputies. Having explored the effect of different electoral formulas on the performance of the “party of power”, M.Turchenko demonstrates that predominantly majoritarian electoral system benefits this party to a far greater extent than either a mixed system with the ratio of majoritarian and proportional components 1 to 1 or purely proportional. According to his conclusion, under the conditions of a growing number of party structures and constantly decreasing rating of the “United Russia”, the extension of the majoritarian component of the electoral system was quite a rational strategy aimed at preserving the status quo.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-84-96

PRACTICAL SOCIOLOGY

Dmitry Rogozin

CORRUPTION IN STORIES OF CIVIL SERVANTS

Keywords: biographical interviews, bureaucracy, civil service, corruption

The article is based on the results of a comprehensive sociological study of professional ethics of state and municipal employees conducted by the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration in 2012–2013. On the basis of 150 detailed biographical interviews the author analyzed perception of corruption by public officials, determined the main discursive elements of corruption topic and proposed an explanatory model of formation and development of corruption in the modern Russian society. Six discursive areas that constitute corruption discourse were determined: “no bad guy around”, “all the evil is outside”, “to solve problems”, “personification of a service”, “fight as an ordered procedure”. The article demonstrates that corruption can be interpreted not only in terms of economic gain at the expense of the third parties, but also in terms of reproduction of shadow relations parasitizing upon the legal social order.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-97-117

POLITICAL PARTIES

Nikolai Rabotyazhev

BRITISH LABOUR PARTY ON THE WAY TO ADAPTATION TO MODERN WORLD

Keywords: British Labour Party, Social-Democratic movement, ideological evolution, “New Labourism”

The article explores the evolution of the British Labour Party’s ideology. After briefly touching upon the ideological origins of labourism and its development during the 20th century, the author analyzes in detail theoretical searching that unfolded within the party at the end of the last century and led to the emergence of the so-called “New Labourism” that marked a rejection of etatist-redistributive social model and recognition of advantages of private initiative and market economy. Having notified a visible tendency among labourists to return to a more traditional agenda after 2007, N.Rabotyazhev suggests that the results of the Labour Party in the parliamentary elections in 2015 will largely depend on whether it will manage to develop by that time a convincing project combining center-left values with the imperatives of globalization and “new economy”.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-118-140


Yury Gayvoronsky

CONSOLIDATION OF PARTY SYSTEMS IN CONTEXT OF TRANSFORMATION OF ELECTORAL SPACE AND POLITICAL REGIMES On Example of Balkan Region Countries

Keywords: party system, electoral space, consolidation, fragmentation, volatility

The article investigates problems of party systems consolidation in the post-communist states that are clearly orientated towards United Europe on the example of the four Balkan countries (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia). The paper consists of three parts. The first section discusses theoretical aspects of party systems consolidation and methods for operationalization of the level of consolidation. The second section provides an overall overview of the evolution of party systems in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Slovenia, and Serbia. The third section is devoted to the analysis of these systems within the current electoral cycle with its distinguishing feature being an increased level of political instability (for the studied sample). This circumstance is all the more important that characteristics of a party system, including the degree of its consolidation, become most visible under the conditions of a crisis.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-141-154


GUBERNATORIAL READINGS

GLOBAL CHALLENGES FOR RUSSIA: MYTHS AND REALITY (Sixteenth Gubernatorial Readings. Tyumen, March 11th, 2014)

Keywords: global challenges, world economy, geopolitics, West, Russia, Tyumen region

The material published here is a report on the Sixteenth Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, March 11th, 2014, 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 global challenges that Russia faces today and a lecturer being S.A.Karaganov, Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, Chairman of the Editorial Board of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, Dean of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs at the Higher School of Economics.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-155-176

CATHEDRA

Nikolay Medushevsky

TOLERANCE AND CHANGING IDENTITY AS FACTORS OF TRANSFORMATION OF US SOCIO-POLITICAL SYSTEM

Keywords: tolerance, identity, social compromise, alternative cultural types, ethnic and racial minorities

On the basis of analyzing the evolution of the established model of tolerant interaction and its current state in the US, N.Medushevsky concludes that, despite the apparent welfare of the American society, it is on the brink of crisis, the essence of which lies in breaking the historical tradition of integrating migrants and disfranchised groups of citizens into the system of national political dialogue. This crisis is caused by the fact that a certain “limit of concessions” has been reached, beyond which the traditional “white majority” would lose its privileged status, which forces them to switch to defense and confrontation with the forces that ruin their identity. The latter are represented by ethnic and racial minorities that during the struggle for their civil rights and liberties are gradually realizing commonality of their interests and a possibility of a different, “non-white” path of development, where it is they who may be assigned a role of the national history creator.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2014-73-2-177-189