CIS - TERRA INCOGNITA: POLITICAL PROCESSES IN THE FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS
The article covers the analysis of factors impairing Russian-Ukrainian mutual understanding. Stating that Russia and Ukraine are very close and similar to each other in many areas the author reveals deep differences in the constructive specificities of those very "historical development generators" that set the direction and velocity of each of the country`s movement in space and time. A.Okara convincingly shows that from the prospective of political culture and the combination of social stability and instability, Chaos and Order paradigm Ukraine and Russia are phenomena in many ways contradicting each other. At the same time these countries are so closely interrelated that their historical future first of all depends on the nature of bilateral relations. According to the author the most promising relationships for both countries would not be the ones based on "subtraction" or just simple "addition" of their potentials but on the "multiplication" of these potentials via synergetic cooperation on strategic issues. In his opinion this is the quest of the format for such cooperation that should become the basis of Russian-Ukrainian relationships.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-6-31
Alexander Sobianin, Vasiliy Misnik
"UNCATCHABLE JOE" OF CENTRAL ASIA. Russia as the Strategic Resource of Kirghiz Development
The article covers an attempt to follow the possible directions of modern Kirghiz development. On the basis of the analysis of the state of affairs in the republic the authors come to the conclusion that during the years of independence it failed to respond any of the challenges that came together with freedom and to find its place in the regional and international division of labor. Nevertheless, according to their conclusion this does not mean that Kirghizia did not and will not become a "normal" country. A.Sobianin and V.Misnik relate the prospects of its would be regional "specialization" with Russia. They believe that currently Kirghiz Republic has all to gradually move to the position of a key player, however, as a member of the Russian team.
Political Theories
The urgent issue faced by the world community is what should be the attitude of a constitutional rule-of-law state to those who are not always in line with the commonly recognized social norms of everyday living. Should it protect human rights up to suppressing "anti-modern sectarianism and obscurantism" or should it express maximum tolerance to different forms of social and individual activity that does not fit into the tough frameworks of the Modernity project? In the first case the ending might be the "dictatorship of humanism", in the second case the rule-of-law state turns into the indifferent witness of personal liberty oppression. According to G.Musikhin it is the principle of individual autonomy that opens the way to getting beyond this dilemma. He concludes that the real value pluralism and liberal democracy tolerance should be based on the supremacy of individual autonomy leaving space for collective values that do not always meet the principles of constitutional liberalism.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-42-60
TRUST NETWORKS AND THE FORMATION OF THE STATE. Dutch experience
The article deals with the substantiation of heuristic value of the elite democracy concept while studying of political regimes that already stopped being autocratic but are far from consolidated liberal democratic standards. Owing to limited access to information on functioning of elite democracies of the 20th - 21st centuries the author turns to the Dutch experience of the late 16th - early 18th centuries proving that the effective integration of trust networks may be a mighty driver of national economic development providing for the high level of stability in the country. The author concludes that in the Netherlands` case the integration of trust networks replaced building of centralized bureaucratic institutions typical for modern history. However, due to the absence of such institutions the Netherlands found themselves behind their geopolitical rivals — England and France who were moving on the way of institutional development.
Public Consciousness
SILENCE. Problems of Modern Russian Political Metaphor
The article covers the analysis of the causes and consequences of weak regional participation in introducing of new political metaphors. According to the author the "muteness" of regional authorities is brought by the political "deafness" of federal structures. The design of political metaphors process in regional policy has to sublimate in the quest of the practical decisions of specific problems. As it is shown in the article such approach is far from being harmless since rejecting political initiatives regional politicians practically pass their functions of strategic planning to the center that is not always able to take into account regional specifics. Besides, the political center and regional authorities come to speak not the same language thus breaking the unified communication code responsible for contacts inside the system.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-75-82
Tatiana Evgenieva, Antonina Selezneva
"ENEMY IMAGE". AS THE FACTOR OF THE FORMATION OF MODERN RUSSIAN YOUTH`S NATIONAL IDENTITY
One of the specifics of modern Russia became the actualization of the "enemy image" in the mass consciousness. It is in particular expressed in the growth of radical nationalism and xenophobia especially among the youth. On the basis of social identity theory the authors hypothesize that this tendency is the consequence of the Russian youth`s value vacuum that came after the USSR disintegration. They believe that this was the absence of the system of meaning around which the society could unite that created a favorable medium for negative identification through the "enemy image".
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-83-92
ORTHODOXY INFLUENCE ON RUSSIAN CITIZENS’ SOCIAL ACTIVITY AND POLITICAL VALUES
The article contains the results of the study addressing the level of the correlation between the Orthodox Church membership and Russian citizens` social activity and political preferences. Using the analysis of the data of the poll conducted in January-March 2006 at some Moscow secular and religious educational establishments the author shows that Orthodox religiosity as such does not influence believers` political orientation and social activity. In his opinion the influence is exerted by a certain subculture conditioned more by special ideological segments and traditions around the church than the religious dogma.
Russian regions: the far east
Natalia Rizhova, Natalia Simutina
RUSSIAN-CHINESE BORDER: ALIENATED - COEXISTENT - INTERDEPENDENT?
The authors give arguments evidencing that Blagoveschensk - Hey He area may be interpreted as transborder. The border plays rather a contact than barrier function, migration, predominantly pendulum exchange, is growing, commodity and cash flows are increasing, and the citizens of both territories actively interact getting commercial profit from the border resource. At the same time it is shown that these processes take place in the institutionally indefinite cross-border field. The result is the transborder interaction of predominately informal nature often based on Chinese priorities.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-100-114
The author analyzes the origin of current issues in Russian national territorial policy. Using the analysis of national territorial transformations conducted in 19th - 20th centuries in the Far East the author shows that the cause of most problems currently faced by the small aboriginal peoples of the Russian Federation is the fact that the division between a political nation and an ethnic group disappeared. In the Russian empire there was a dominant political nation, however, nationalities were clearly defined. The Soviet power proclaimed each people`s right to self-determination and evened these differences thus putting a "time bomb" under the whole building of the Soviet Union and its successors.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-115-124
LABOR MARKET IN THE PERIOD OF SYSTEM TRANSFORMATIONS. Using Jewish Autonomous Republic as Example
The article covers the analysis of political factors` influence in the sphere of labor relations. The author focuses his attention on the labor market processes in Jewish Autonomous Republic. Since the Jewish Autonomous Republic is not a strategically important region attracting the close attention of the country`s higher leadership and there are neither powerful defense complex companies nor valuable natural resources there D.Atroschenko considers things taking place there as the most "pure" case of labor market shaping in the post-soviet area.
Antithesis
In the search of the answer what let the Bolsheviks to implement their adventurous ideas B.Orlov analyzes the political subcultures which expressed themselves in the activity of different social groups and organizations, the main participants of the February process. In his opinion at the beginning of the revolution the representatives of two different political subcultures came to the political arena - the consensus one whose carriers were trade and industrial circles, liberal intelligentsia, urban middle class and the confrontation one. Lenin and his extremist supporters used the latter to come to the power. These were not the Soviets that gave them the "green light" but the wave of the protests of peasants who were just trying on worker`s overalls, a soldier or a sailor uniform.
Book Review
Noting the doubtless merits of the collective monograph under the editorship of V.Gelman L.Blyakher still states that its authors could not get beyond the negative description of the Russian political regime as being neither "purely" authoritarian nor properly democratic. Moreover, although the book makes think about the structure of Russian political institutions and the principle difference between the "name" of an institution and the function it performs in the society the issue of the essence of Russian political regime is not raised there. Explaining such "narrow" point of view by the desire to stick to the scientific "purity of style" Blyakher reflects on the factors hindering the conceptualization of Russian political reality.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-158-163
B.Makarenko reviews the monograph of the famous expert in international relations V.Petrovsky. In his opinion the work`s main merit is that it gives the "thick description" of the theories of international relations that teach to understand this sphere as science and provide for the analytical tools of its rethinking, planning and forecasting.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2007-46-3-164-166
A.Sokolova gives the review of the first issue of new specialized journal called to create a publishing site for researchers who use the tools of exact sciences for studying of socio-political sphere.
Chronicle
SUBJECTS WITHOUT PROPERTIES. Russian Political Parties in the Election Campaign of 2007
In the traditional for the magazine review Yu.Korgunyuk presents the main events in the life of Russian political parties in August-October 2007. As usual the chronicle is accompanied by analysis of the alignment of political forces in the country. According to the author the today`s situation in Russia reminds of Brazil in 1964—1985. The current Russian reality reminds of the Brazilian situation in that time not only by the same complete immunity of the supreme power from any impact on the side of political parties and the scale of electoral engineering but also by the artificial, subjectless and unstable nature of the "party of the power" whose positions are supported by purely administrative efforts.