Political theories
EMPTY SPACE: DEMOCRACY AS POLITICAL FORM
Keywords: democracy, political form, political evil, autonomous subject, political parties, separation of powers
Continuing with the series of articles devoted to the problematique of political form, this time S.Kaspe addresses the issue of democracy. The author believes that the emptiness of the center (in Shils’ interpretation of the term) should be considered a “stable core” of the essentially contested and therefore extensible concept (and the project), or its fundamental characteristic, which remains unchanged despite all external transformations: “No one... can imagine herself the sole spokesman for and translator of democratic values, the sole ruler and manager of democratic institutions, the sole prophet of democratic transcendence”. The roots of this normative statement are found in the field of political theology. The main (but not the only) means of its practical implementation are separation of powers and multi-party system. It is their combined effect that makes democracy although imperfect, but still rather effective way of protection against political evil.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2016-81-2-6-32
Keywords: rationality, ontology, value, Political Science, Ancient Greece
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 of 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. In the history of Europe there were several such languages that replaced one another. In the first part of the article published in this issue the author analyzes the antique language for describing politics.
Russian Politeia
Yury Korgunyuk, Sergei Shpagin
REGIONAL DUMA ELECTIONS ON SEPTEMBER 13th, 2015, AND CHANGES IN PARTY POLITICAL SPACE IN RUSSIA
Keywords: regional elections, electoral cleavages, party competition, political space
The article is devoted to the study of changes in the party political space of Russia. On the basis of analyzing the results of the regional elections held on September 13, 2015, Yu.Korgunyuk and S.Shpagin denote the strengthening of the tendency that started a year earlier to “hermetization” of the party political system of the country and to waning of the effect of the 2012 party reform, and at the same time the fragility of the ground beneath this seeming stability. The elections were accompanied by further simplification and flattening of the political space. All regions without a single exception witnessed the number of political cleavages reduced to two. The number of electoral cleavages also dropped. The authors conclude that the 2016 Duma elections will see further tightening of the political and electoral space with fractures along the weakest links. The only question is where exactly these fractures will appear and whether they entail the failure of the whole system.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2016-81-2-55-76
Keywords: integration of migrants, media, content analysis, Russia
The concept of “integration of migrants” that is extensively used in the discussion of the Russian migration policy is often interpreted as a sign of policy liberalization and even humanization. To what extent is this interpretation adequate? In search of an answer to this question E.Klimenko analyzes the representation of this concept in the print and electronic versions of the “Rossiyskaya Gazeta” – the official newspaper of the government of the Russian Federation. The research study conducted by the author shows that the way of representing the concept of “integration of migrants” established in this newspaper contributes to constructing an image of the host community as culturally homogeneous “substance” that is in need of protection against the threat posed by the same culturally homogeneous “migrants”, as well as in need of consolidation of the power-subordination relations between them.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2016-81-2-77-88
ECONOMIC ELITE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: WORK EXPERIENCE IN POLITICAL ADMINISTRATIVE SPHERE
Keywords: economic elite, career, administration, representative bodies, nomenclature
The article attempts to analyze political administrative experience of the members of the Russian economic elite. The empirical part of the research is based on the biographies of those who exercise strategic control of the largest companies in Russia (according to the ranking of the magazine “Expert”) and/or those among the richest businessmen in the country (according to the ranking of the magazine “Forbes”). Having considered in details the degree of entrenchment of the present economic elite in the political administrative nomenclature of the Soviet era as well as the post-Soviet work experience of the leading businessmen in the administrative structures and representative bodies, D.Tev reveals the peculiarities of political administrative activity of different categories of the economic elite.
Historical Retrospective: Reflections and Hypotheses
Leonid Bliakher, Ildus Yarulin
WHO ARE BASMACHI? Soviet Myth Making and Stigmatization of Civil War in Central Asia
Keywords: Basmachi, peripheral community, mythologization, ethnic and social conflicts
The article studies the specifics of mythologization and stigmatization of the peripheral communities in the Soviet empire on the example of the civil war in Central Asia. Focusing on the phenomenon of Basmachi movement, L.Blyakher and I.Yarulin show the reasons for why the very term “basmachi” emerged, how its volume and content were formed, and what functions it performed in relation to the peripheral community. According to the authors’ conclusion, the attempts to reconsider Basmachi movement that have been increasingly undertaken in the recent years have failed precisely because within the Soviet stigmatizing discourse this term referred to the movements that were extremely different both in their political preferences and social nature, but at some point were declared enemies by the Soviet authorities.
Practical sociology
Igor Zadorin, Darya Maltseva, Vladimir Petukhov
RUSSIAN SOCIETY – 2020: EXPERT IMAGE OF THE FUTURE
Keywords: scenario forecast, expert assessments, alternative trajectories of development, Russian society
The material published here represents a shorter version of the analytical report about the results of a survey of experts in the framework of expert scenario forecasting monitoring “Russia 2020”, carried out in July-October, 2015, by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the ZIRCON Research group. The methodology of the study is based on the technology of expert scenario forecasting monitoring developed in the early 1990s by the experts from the Institute of Sociology and the ZIRCON Research group. This technology repeatedly demonstrated its great efficiency in predicting the development of the country under the conditions of high uncertainty. I.Zadorin, D.Maltsev and V.Petukhov participated in preparing the report. E.Khalkina took part in organizing and conducting the expert survey.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2016-81-2-124-157
HOW AMERICAN POLLSTERS PREDICT ELECTIONS
Keywords: elections, electoral forecasts, methods, American experience
This article discusses some of the results of the study about the practice of electoral research in the United States, implemented by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) in September-December, 2015. Setting the practical task – to find out the peculiarities of survey technologies employed in the United States, and what approaches to forecasting can be used in the Russian conditions, – Ju.Baskakova focuses on methods of conducting surveys, approaches to choosing samples, solutions to the problems of response rate and social desirability responses, as well as factors that affect the accuracy of forecasts.
Gubernatorial readings
WAYS TO STRENGTHEN POSITIONS OF TYUMEN REGION ON CORPORATE WORLD MAP
Keywords: investment attractiveness, oil and gas sector, diversification of economy, international market, foreign direct investments, Tyumen region
The material published here is a report on the Twenty Fourth Gubernatorial Readings held in Tyumen, March 15th, 2016, 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 ways to improve the investment attractiveness of the region and the lecturer being A.V.Kuznetsov, the Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Deputy Director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, RAS.
Reflections over the read
Keywords: fascism, right-wing radicalism, right-wing extremism, populism
A.Glukhova views the successful synthesis of the historical and political analysis as one of the most important advantages of the reviewed publication. Assessing the collection of works of a multinational team of scientists, whose scientific findings have been published in two issues of the magazine Bereginya 777 Sova, as a new word in studies on fascism and right-wing authoritarianism as well as high-quality modern diagnosis of these phenomena, she expresses her hope that this rich material will eventually be published as a book.