TO 90th ANNIVERSARY OF A.A.GALKIN
Boris Koval, Anatoly Chernyaev, Tatiana Alekseeva, Kirill Kholodkovsky, Sergei Mikhailov, Aleksey Shestopal, Oksana Gaman-Golutvina, Olga Zdravomyslova, Leonid Bliakher, Svyatoslav Kaspe
Keywords: Alexander Abramovich Galkin
Alexander Abramovich Galkin, Patriarch of the Russian Political Science, Deputy Chair of the Editorial Board of the Journal Politeia, celebrated his 90th anniversary on the 24th of July. The material that is offered to the attention of the readers is composed in the form of the “homage” and presents the collection of texts written by friends, colleagues and students of Alexander Abramovich that tells us about the hero of an anniversary as well as his contribution to the development of the social science knowledge in our country and the emergence of the Russian political science community. The collection contains works by Boris Koval, Anatoly Chernyaev, Tatyana Alekseeva, Kirill Kholodkovsky, Sergey Mikhailov, Aleksey Shestopal, Oksana Gaman-Golutvina, Olga Zdravomyslova and Leonid Blyakher.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-66-3-6-31
ABOUT A.A.GALKIN’S BOOK GERMAN FASCISM AND ITS EPOCH
Keywords: Alexander Abramovich Galkin, fascism, national socialism, Soviet historiography
The article is devoted to the contribution by Alexander Abramovich Galkin into the studies on fascism and foremost to the analysis of his fundamental monograph about the German type of this phenomenon. Demonstrating the continuity of the best traditions of the Marxist school of thought within Galkin’s works, S.Allenov also emphasizes their innovative character that allowed broadening in many ways the strict frames of fascism “class” interpretation that dominated the Soviet social science. Tracing the evolution of the researcher’s views Allenov focuses the attention on the gradual deepening of his thoughts on the relations between fascism and different strata of society as well as the role of the economic elite in setting and implementing fascist prevalence. The article convincingly shows that a lot of observations and conclusions made by the coryphaeus of the Soviet school of thought on fascism did not lose their scientific relevance, and the conception that they gave birth to is still one of the most successful attempts of the theoretical comprehension of this issue.
Antithesis
DOUBLE PORTRAIT: BREZHNEV–GORBACHEV (II)
Keywords: Brezhnev, Gorbachev, epoch, economy, ideology, perestroika
Is it an accident that at certain time periods cut by the history it was 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 second part of the essay published in this issue (for the beginning see Politeia, 2012, ¹ 2) the author talks about the approaches of two leaders to solving economic problems of our country, analyzes their attitudes in the sphere of ideology and provides overall assessment of the results of their activity.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-66-3-46-66
Keywords: macroeconomic proportions, target function, good organization, efficiency, behavioral practices
The article is devoted to substantiating the argument about business being responsible for prosperity of economy and society at large. According to the author’s conclusion, such prosperity is consistent with rather specific macroeconomic parameters and ratios that were realized within the economies of “the golden billion”. Having analyzed in details the impact of the macroeconomic proportions on such aspects of social life as goal setting, relations between classes, economic efficiency, production modernization, stability, social morality, G.Osipov proposes the hypothesis that it is these characteristics that are the “rigorous” indicator that determines the set of political and socio-humanitarian features of the society.
Russian Polity
Keywords: elections, electoral cleavages, factor analysis, regression analysis
On the basis of the analysis of the 2011–2012 parliamentary and presidential elections conducted with the help of mathematical instruments with some of them being known for a long time and others relatively new, Yu.Korgunyuk comes to the conclusion that in the nearest future the political situation in Russia will be determined by the aggravation of tensions along the line “those in power – those not in power”, “the power – the public”. One could have avoided it if V.Putin had not taken the decision to occupy the presidential chair again. Now the tension will be growing until the change of the regime or at least the head of state. Throughout the history of the country similar situations took place at least twice – in the beginning and at the end of the 20th century – and ended up with the regime change and after a while reproduction of the strict authoritarian power to this or that extent. Whether this time Russia will be able to break through the vicious circle or not will depend, according to the author’s opinion, on many circumstances, in particular, on the exact nature of the regime change – whether it is evolutionary or revolutionary.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-66-3-84-99
ELECTORAL SPACE OF RUSSIA: FROM IMPOSED NATIONALIZATION TOWARDS NEW REGIONALIZATION?
Keywords: party system, electoral space, nationalization, regionalization, elections
The article prepared in the framework of the program “Structural analysis of regional political regimes and electoral spaces” attempts to test the methods that are used in the explorations conducted by the Laboratory of Regional Political Research within the National Research University Higher School of Economics. The author sets his goal as substantiatingthese methods as well as demonstrating their usage by the Russian example, which in its turn allows him to draw conclusions about the structure and dynamics of the electoral space in the modern Russia. The paper employs the official statistical data from the Central Electoral Commission, the Russian Statistics Committee and the Ministry of Regional Development of the Russian Federation. All the calculations are carried out by the author.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-66-3-100-120
DUMA INCUMBENTS AND “PARTY OF POWER” Cross-temporal analysis
Keywords: incumbent, incumbency advantage, State Duma, “party of power”
The phenomenon of the incumbency advantage at the parliamentary elections was observed rather long time ago in the US and many Western European states. Some researchers view an increase in the number of parliamentary long-livers as an indicator of the party system weakening and politics “clientalization”, whereas others, in contrast, regard the presence of the experienced parliamentarians as an important prerequisite for maintaining continuity and stability of legislature. What are the nature and the role of incumbency in the modern Russia? In order to answer this question the author traces the dynamics of the incumbents’ share at the Russian parliament and tries to discover its determinants. She studies changes in the quantity and “quality” of the reelected deputies on the material about the 1995–2007 elections to the Russian State Duma emphasizing the process of institutionalization of the incumbency advantage and its dependency on the institutionalization of the “party of power”.
Historical Retrospective: Reflections and Hypotheses
Victor Sergeev, Sevak Sarukhanyan
“WHITE REVOLUTION”: FAILURE OF MODERNIZATION FROM ABOVE
Keywords: Iran, “White revolution”, Islamic society, modernization, democratic institutions
The article is devoted to exploring reasons for the failure of the “White revolution” – the modernization policy conducted since the 1960-s by Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,Shah of Iran. Having thoroughly analyzed economic, political and social components of the “White revolution”, V.Sergeev and S.Sarukhanyan come to the conclusion about the total inadequacy of the approach that connects the failure of the Iranian modernization to the reactionary and conservative character of its society. The research carried out by the authors persuasively proves that the essential role in the destiny of the modernization project was played by the Shah’s inability (or unwillingness) to modernize the state government system and the model of the relationships with the society. The origins of the collapse of the Iranian monarchy and its political course, according to the authors, are hidden in the reactionary character of this monarchy which assumed monopoly over the expression of the “common wealth” denying the society the right to determine and represent its interests by itself.
Cathedra
EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY IN SEARCH FOR ADAPTATION TO CHANGING WORLD
Keywords: social democracy, ideas evolution, modernism, left traditionalism, renewal
The article considers the European social democracy ideas evolution from the moment of its emergence until today. On the basis of the analysis of the fundamental attitudes within the leading European social democratic parties N.Rabotyazhev demonstrates that until very recently the development of the social democratic movement in essence had only one vector – social democracy has been gradually losing its radicalism transforming from the anti-capitalist class force into the part of the political establishment of the Western countries, and only the world financial-economic crisis interrupted its “driftage to the right”. At the same time the author describes history of the social democratic movement as a story of escaping illusions and dogmas. According to the author’s opinion, the distinguishing features of this movement are permanent “revisionism”, timely abandonment of obsolete or erroneous views, constant aspiration towards bringing ideas into accordance with reality. It is these qualities that allow social democrats to overcome the difficulties that they faced in the epoch of globalization.
DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2012-66-3-146-167
WORKS BY CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON IN SPHERE OF VOTING THEORY
Keywords: Dodgson, voting procedure, candidates, voters, preferences, pairwise comparisons
In the article the author explores the contribution into the voting theory made by the English mathematician who became widely known as the author of the fairy tales Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as a number of other literature works published under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. According to V.Volsky, the works by Dodgson in the sphere of the voting theory are interesting along several lines. First, the author critically analyzed a number of widespread voting procedures having clearly demonstrated that their usage might result in paradoxical situations such that a candidate is elected whom the common sense would never have acknowledged as the best one. Second, knowing nothing about the works by his predecessors he elaborated voting procedures that are based on the sum of ranks and pairwise comparison of candidates and determined the possibility of the emergence of cycles. Third, he offered a totally new approach towards deciding on a winner in pairwise comparison of candidates introducing the notion of the level of superiority of one candidate over the other. This notion is the core of the voting procedure that is named after Dodgson.
Book Review
Keywords: Sweden, immigration policy, integration, national culture
According to P.Kandel’s assessment, the book under review provides the extensive and versatile view on the change in scopes and nature of immigration in Sweden, the evolution of immigration policy and policy of integration of immigrants into the Swedish society. To his mind, what is essential and novel is that these processes are viewed not only at the theoretical, normative and legal levels, but also from the point of their reflection in the everyday life. In contrast to the authors of many other works on the similar topic, N.Plevako and O.Chernysheva refuse to regard immigrants as a passive object of policy with its subject being state. The structure and content of their monograph are dictated by the solution to a more fruitful task – assessing successes and failures of the immigration policy from the positions of both accepting and immigrating communities.