Russian Polity
Svyatoslav Kaspe, Alexei Salmin
Dimensions of Liberty: Parliamentary Electoral Process in the Post-Soviet Space
The fourth series of articles published in the «Politeia» digest within the project of the Russian Public Policy Center Foundation «Dimensions of liberty: parliamentary electoral process in the post-soviet Russia» presents a multi-dimensional analysis of Russian political space according to the axis of socio-economic, political and cultural liberty. The short summary of the results of the studies of the mono-dimensional model structured according to the axis of socio-economic freedom is followed by the description of the tendencies revealed during the analysis of the two other dimensions of freedom, and a volumetric model of Russian political space is offered. The studies prove that the space remains structured by the theme of freedom. However, different aspects of freedom are not equally relevant. The parliamentary political process is determined, first, by the theme of socio-economic freedom, second, by the theme of political freedom, and the least of all, by the theme of cultural freedom. According to the authors, the current process of de-ideologization, though taking place on a restricted scale, means neither the de-politization of the society at large, nor of its political elite.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-5-54
Pages: 5-54
Igor Bunin, Boris Makarenko, Alexey Makarkin
Kremlin and Governors: First Results of Federal Reform
The authors focus their attention on the results and prospects of the Russian federal reform. The authors review the first actions of Mr. Putin’s Administration and Kremlin’s further possible steps in this direction, and give would-be scenarios of federal structures’ development. They believe that the most probable way of the federal districts development is their strengthening as the basis of the new national administrative-territorial division, as well as empowering of the Presidential Plenipotentiary Representatives with the real mechanisms of control over their territories under a decisive suppression of any disintegration processes. As far as the Federation Council, according to the authors, it will most likely turn into an analogue of the German Bundesrat, and will be influenced by both federal and regional executive authorities. Besides, analyzing regional leaders’ reaction to the current reforms, and the levers which the Kremlin has to influence the results of regional elections the authors come to the conclusion that the success of the federal reform will largely depend on the fact of how much thoroughly the federal authorities think out their actions pointed to regional elite. The authors believe that this very factor will ensure national stability, and will allow to take into consideration the interests of all the main actors of the political process, thus avoiding the stuck of the reform.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-55-66
Pages: 55-66
Post-Soviet Space
Armenia-Russia-CIS: the Present and the Past of the Post-Soviet Space
The article highlights the experience and the prospects of the CIS development and the related problems facing Armenia. The author shows that the CIS rather played the role of the civilized divorce between the former Soviet republics than the role of an integration factor. Noting that, currently, bilateral and trilateral agreements work more efficiently than the CIS at large he states that in the nearest future, in the CIS, the leading role will be played by this institution sub-systems such as the Customs Union or GUUAM (Georgia-Uzbekistan-Ukraine- Azerbabaijan-Moldova). A special attention is paid to the Treaty of Collective Security pointing to the fact that after the withdrawal of Georgia and Azerbajan it cannot act as the basis of the main mutual security system, at least, in Southern Caucasus. The author strongly doubts that Armenia will join the Russian-Belorussian union. He states, regretfully, that lately the cooperation between Russia and Armenia within the CIS has slightly weakened but expresses the hope that these two countries partnership relationships will be restored.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-67-73
Pages: 67-73
Development of Party System in Lithuania
Having analyzed the tendencies of the party system evolution in Lithuania the author concludes that its major direction has become widening of the field of moderate inter-party relationships. At the same time, the author shows that, although, the main feature of the Lithuanian party system’s underdevelopment, - the polarization has been eliminated, though the high level of its fragmentation still exists. Till 2000, the fragmentation of political forces hardly influenced the Parliament and mostly affected the electorate of emerging parties. The newly formed parties took away the votes of the electorate but a rather high 5% barrier did not allow such parties to get seats at the Seimas. However, due to canceling of the second round of the elections in one mandate constituencies the effect of the 5% was neutralized. The fragmentation moved to the Parliament broadening the range of parties on the left-right scale.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-74-83
Pages: 74-83
Russia on the Way to Succession
Mission of Russian Emigration and the Future of Russia at the Beginning of the XXI Century
Unlike Central and Eastern European countries which rejected the communist legacy and dismantled the foundation of the communist arrangement Russian Federation, according to the author, did not become the successor of pre-revolutionary Russia. It adopted the republican form of governing, the federative structure of the state, the national and administrative borders and many other institutions of the USSR and the RSFSR, and thus recognized the legality of the revolution which had created them, and, consequently, the illegality of the legal order canceled by it. Russian citizens are the heirs of the Soviet era, and not Russia both in the state and the property spheres. In the author’s opinion this situation is caused by a deep cultural amnesia, the loss of moral self-evaluation, the inability to repent of the fathers' choice. That is why he believes that the Russian emigration which keep the memory and the life style of old Russia should play a leading role in the national renaissance. Inspired by paternal traditions cherished by the exiles Russia will find its way.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-84-92
Pages: 84-92
Succession of Russia and the Problem of Restitution
The author supports the political movement which strives to restore Russia as a state with one thousand years of history, and he believes that not only the October Revolution but the February Revolution as well was fatal for Russia. Nevertheless, he is convinced that Russia does not need a mechanical restoration but the revival under the reestablishment of its historical succession. He proves that the substantial element of this revival is restitution, however, warning against extreme positions on this issue. He thinks that direct property confiscation would look like an attempt to delete 80 years of national history and making individual people responsible for the deeds of the whole nation, and could give room to new injustice while trying to eliminate the old one. That is why he thinks that during the restitution process the rights and the interests of the owners of the property liable for the restitution should be protected.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-93-101
Pages: 93-101
Problem of Contamporaneity in the Context of Modernization and Globalization
The article is devoted to the criticism of modernization approach taken into practice by Russian westernizers. The author shows that the problem of modernization i.e. the transfer to contemporaneity occurs in the atmosphere of the deepest chronopolitical trauma caused by the mentality of one’s backwardness in comparison to other nations. Meanwhile, he believes that under such mentality the development is impossible. If a human being is convinced that he or she is a barbarian he or she will behave accordingly, and the result will be the tyranny in the up and the chaos in the down instead of the development. That is why the author thinks that the only way of returning to contemporaneity and acquiring the adequate identity is the orientation to the global development goals and not to the modernization goals. The author rejects both the recipes of those who call Russia to become Europe and of those who want to reanimate the pre-soviet past. His opinion is that Russia can make a breakthrough in the contemporaniety when it stops identifying modernization with the West, and realizes that other countries face similar problems.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-102-115
Pages: 102-115
Perspectives of Foreign Policy
Structure and Dynamics of the Political Geografical Images of the Modern World
The article substantiates the idea of the world as a network space, a self-developed and self-representative network system of political geographical images (PGI) i.e. political ideas structured from geospatial positions. The PGI network-system is first of all formed as a network of mass media images. These images functionally include the links existing between them, they sort of mean each other, their creation and development is not possible without the parallel development of the image-geo- graphic context. The essence of the process lies in the constant increase of parallel image-geographic context creating at a certain moment a comprehensive system-image of the modem world. The main function of the inner links in the PGI network-system is spacing of political events. Such links help to construct image-geographic transitions from the events localized in a traditional geographic area to PGI maps already based on the network principle.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-116-121
Pages: 116-121
Balkan Geopolitical Knot: Energetic Aspects
Having reviewed the current alignment of forces in the Balkans the author analyzes the influence of factors related to energy carriers transportation on the foreign policy situation in the region. He stresses that transit has always been a vitally important link between the producers and the consumers of energy resources, and shows that the problem of transit being a major one in the energy policy is acquiring a geopolitical and geostrategic nature, and the pipelines change not only the political but the geographical landscape of Europe. The author describes the strategy of leading Russian oil and gas companies in the Balkans substantiating the thesis that these companies are the most powerful weapon of the Russian state, a connecting link between Russia and the EU as well as a decisive factor of the Russian presence in Europe and in the Balkans, in particular. At the same time, the author is convinced that an effective oil and gas policy in the region is impossible without taking into account the specifics of the Balkan geopolitical knot.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-122-141
Pages: 122-141
Political Cooperation Between Russia and India on the International Area
The main theme of the article is strengthening and developing of the cooperation between Russia and India on the international arena. The author gives specific examples of how Moscow and Delhi positions sometimes coincide. Thus, both countries stand for promoting of the role of the United Nations Organization seeing the UN as the cornerstone of the existing security system, and find it inadmissible to use power methods evading this organization. A special attention is paid to the problem of Russian-Indian cooperation in Asian region, in particular, the issues of international terrorism, religious and political extremism, illegal arms trafficing, drugs trafficing, etc. The author shows that the basis of this cooperation is the historical experience, mutual interests as well as realizing of the responsibility for the state of affairs at the global and regional level.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-142-151
Pages: 142-151
Peacekeeping
Preventive Diplomacy as a Tool of Conflict Prevention
A short review of the history of the formation and development of scientific sub-disciplines studying the problems of peace and conflicts resolution is followed by the analysis of the preventive diplomacy content. The author recognizes the contribution made by Dr. B. Butros Gali, the UN Secretary General, for the actualization of this notion in his report «Agenda for Peace» but still shares the opinion of the scientists who find the proposed interpretation of preventive diplomacy too wide and ambiguous. He finds more adequate the approach according to which the essence of preventive diplomacy lies in the interference before a conflict breaks out in order not to allow disagreements to turn into an open confrontation. In the article, big attention is paid to the conditions creating the ground for preventive measures as well as to the factors ensuring the success of early interference. Describing the institutions which can implement preventive diplomacy and their instruments the author relies upon the experience of the Center of Early Warning and Conflict Prevention in Amman (Jordan), he is its director.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-152-161
Pages: 152-161
Preventive Diplomacy: Experience and Perspectives
The article is devoted to the study of the problems related to the use of preventive diplomacy methods for conflict prevention. The author thoroughly analyses the experience gained by the United Nations Organization as well as other international agencies and non-governmental actors. He dwells on so called field diplomacy which he finds a prospective direction in the struggle for peace. The article considers the most important reasons of the failures of preventive diplomacy such as the lack of agreement and interest in preventive measures, the bulky procedure of decision making, the inadequate infrastructure, the lack of know-how, the confused nature of modern conflicts, etc. The author shows that preventive diplomacy will be successful if all the actors, both governmental and non-governmental, in their activity, are ruled by the desire to prevent an armed conflict and sufferings and losses brought by it. It is totally inadmissible for the persons involved to implement in parallel their own program or the program of governments or organizations which sent them. Complete impartiality is the main condition of successful preventive diplomacy.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-162-173
Pages: 162-173
Is There a Case for Standing UN Forces
The analysis of different aspects of the combat readiness of the forces used for the UN peacekeeping operations made the author conclude that under a crisis situation requiring an urgent deployment of armed forces for international peace and security maintenance the only real answer is the formation of permanent UN forces. These forces should have a definite structure, appropriate organization and drill, adequate armament, and be at the UN disposal for the immediate use after the sanction of the Security Council. The author proves that such an idea will be soon accepted in the interested circles. However, existing proposals give rise to certain doubts, in particular, the apprehension of developing countries that the Security Council permanent members will use the UN forces in their own interests.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-174-177
Pages: 174-177
Anna Lindh, Pierre Schori, Leif Pagrotsky
To Prevent Armed Conflicts: Swedish Action Program
The program developed by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs gives some background information and outlines the conditions which allow Sweden to take part in the activity on armed conflicts prevention. Besides, it identifies the institutions and the mechanisms without the adaptation and the improvement of which it is impossible to count on conflicts prevention. The goals to be set and the analytical tasks to be solved in order to prepare the necessary base for actions are formulated, and a wide spectrum of the forms of activity is offered. On the basis of this program, the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs intends to fight for taking measures capable to prevent acute conflicts including an energetic international activity for the support of the actions and tendencies aimed at armed conflicts prevention.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-178-187
Pages: 178-187
Academia
G.G. Diligensky and His School
The article is devoted to the history of appearing and developing of the scientific school of Germane Diligensky. Since the 1960-ies the studies by G. Diligensky and his disciples on the problems of socio-political relations in Western countries as well as in the field of social psychology in many ways filled the vacuum in studying of inter-political processes in Western societies. (The vacuum resulted from the enforcement of marx- ism-lenininsm stereotypes.) At the beginning of 1990-es Diligensky school started to study the key issues of the Russian society. Broad and non-triv- ial knowledge about socio-political realities of the West helped it to penetrate into Russian historical and socio-cultural peculiarities, to give a substantiated idea about the multiple stratification and the controversial results of the last decade transformation. Currently Diligensky school is a most important center of knowledge in the field of political science and social psychology.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-188-193
Pages: 188-193
Chronicles
Russian Political Parties in Summer – Beginning of Autumn 2000
The article analyzes the alignment of Russian political forces in the first months of Mr. Putin’s presidency. Having reviewed the process taking part along all the political spectrum the author shows that the subjective wishes of some representatives of the party of power to establish a tri- or tetra party system are in the line with objective tendencies - the number of real subjects of the party policy is gradually reducing. At the same time the author draws attention to the evident symptoms of the formation of a wide lobbying front which undermines the total control of the executive power over the existing Parliament. The analysis is supplemented by the coverage of the main events in the life of Russian parties in summer and the beginning of autumn 2000.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2000-17-3-194-214
Pages: 194-214