Abstracts ¹ 4, 2017

Main Page ~ Journal Archive ~ Abstracts ¹ 4, 2017

Download ¹ 4 (87).

Method

Olga Malinova

Commemoration of Historical Events as Instrument of Symbolic Policy: Possibilities of Comparative Analysis

Keywords: symbolic politics, symbolic policy, politics of memory, commemoration of historical event, social and cultural infrastructure of memory, mnemonic actors

The article is devoted to the problems of a comparative research study of one of the most important practices of politics of memory — commemoration of historical figures and events, i.e., a complex of public acts of “remembering” and (re)interpreting them in the modern context. After reviewing the main approaches to the description and analysis of commemorations, O.Malinova offers a method for studying this process as an instrument of sym- bolic politics. This method implies a combination of the analysis of political strategies implemented by mnemonic actors and a comparative study of the historical narratives they promote, and an assessment of the potential impact of their actions on the transformation of the social and cultural infrastructure of memory about a commemorated event.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-6-22

Pages: 6-22

Paradigms of Social Development

Eduard Schultz

About Malthusian Trap and Demographic Growth as Causes of Radical Forms of Mass Social Protest

Keywords: Malthusian trap, structural-demographic theory, radical forms of mass social protest

On the basis of the analysis of the historical forms of radical mass pro- test, E.Schultz demonstrates inadequacy of (neo)Malthusian and structural-demographic approaches to explaining the origins of this phenomenon. According to his conclusion, the reasons for the emergence of social protest lie in psychology rather than economics. Protest is caused by the belief that the government in power is to blame for the financial deterioration and is incapable of solving this problem rather than deterioration per se. The fall in living standards, even a significant one, will not cause an outbreak of protest if an economic crisis or outsiders are to blame rather than power holders. The same applies to other classical reasons and pretexts for protest. Although deterioration of the financial situation and demographic pressures etc. can create a basis or serve as a trigger for the onset of a radical mass protest, additional condi- tions are necessary (auxiliary factors).

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-23-34

Pages: 23-34


Leonid Grinin, Stanislav Bilyuga, Andrey Korotayev, Sergey Malyzhenkov

Share of Students in Total Poppulation and Socio-Political Destabilization. Quantitative Analysis

Keywords: socio-political destabilization, students, protest potential, correlation analysis

The article continues a series of works of the authoring team headed by A.Korotayev about the sources of socio-political instability. The study confirmed that students as a social and age group can be considered a force that exerts a destabilizing effect on the socio-political situation in the country. The authors found statistically significant positive correlations between the share of students in the total population and important indicators of socio-political destabilization such as the intensity of general strikes, riots and especially anti-government demonstrations. At the same time, the revealed negative correlation between the proportion of students in the population and the intensity of coups and coup attempts indicates that the growing number of students may play not only a destabilizing, but also, in a certain sense, a stabilizing role.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-35-47

Pages: 35-47

Russian Politeia

Tatiana Evgenyeva, Antonina Selezneva

Transformation of National-State Identity of Russian Youth in the Post-Soviet Period: Values' Foundations and Symbolic Representations

Keywords: Russian identity, national-state identity, youth, political values, political symbols, Crimea

The article presents generalized results of the study of the national-state identity of the Russian youth in the post-Soviet period. Political-psychological approach was employed as a theoretical-methodological foundation for the analysis. On the basis of the empirical data collected during the implementation of the long-term research project Formation of National-State Iden- tity in Modern Russia, T.Evgenyeva and A.Selezneva trace changes in the value-symbolic space of the youth’s identity — from the “emptiness” of the 1990s to the contradictory fragmentation of the 2010s — and document key psychological problems associated with this process. In their opinion, the “Crimean consensus” failed to become a sufficiently solid ground for the construction of the Russian nation and is gradually losing its significance as a factor of civil self-identification. In this situation, civil self-identification among young people can take the form of searching for alternative social and political projects, increasing interest in images and symbols offered by opposition politicians.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-48-64

Pages: 48-64


Alexander Kynev

State Duma of the Russian Federation of the VII Convocation: Between “Sleeping Potential” and Party Discipline

Keywords: parliamentarism, separation of powers, political representation, political parties, political elites, local self-government

 

The article is devoted to the analysis of two contradictory tendencies in the Duma of the last convocation documented by the author. The first is about change in the composition of the deputy corps, due to the addition of the majoritarian component as well as a number of other reasons — ranging from hopes for a low turnout to new prohibitions and restrictions in the legislation. The second tendency is related to change in the work style of the Lower House of the Federal Assembly. In addition to reducing its scandalousness and getting rid of a “crazy printer” reputation, the Duma’s as well as individual parliamentary factions’ leadership attempts to streamline and fully centralize the legislative process. While the first trend implies an increase in the deputies’ political independence, the second trend assumes an even greater reduction in their influence on the decisions made by the Duma. After considering possible consequences of the deve- lopment of these tendencies, A.Kynev concludes that if the Kremlin en- counters new difficulties and the Russian authoritarian model starts eroding, the “sleeping potential” of the current Duma may wake up and then it will startle us.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-65-81

Pages: 65-81

Religion and Politics

Denis Zhuravlev

Orthodox Identity as Traditionalism: Construction of Political Meanings in Actual Public Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church

Keywords: Russian Orthodox Church, Orthodoxy, liberalism, LGBT rights, religion, political values

The article examines articulation of traditional political values in the actual public discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC). The study is empirically based on the official documents of the ROC that reflect its position on socio-po- litical issues, statements made by various synodal departments and church hierarchs, as well as statements by the representatives of the Orthodox intelligentsia who promote an alternative agenda of a dialogue between church and society. The author analyzes discursive forms of using key notions associated with two markers of traditionalist consciousness that he chose (attitude towards liberalism and position on the rights of sexual minorities), and explores the context of politicization of confessional ethical normativity. This allows him to interpret Orthodox identity as traditionalist in a political sense of the word, associated with the formation of a certain political theology and politicization of confessional ideas about morality, rather than interpreting it merely as a confessional-religious affiliation that manifests itself in various kinds of practices (going to church services etc.).

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-82-100

Pages: 82-100

Historical Retrospective: Reflections and Hypotheses

Irina Glebova

Special Way of the Russian Revolution

Keywords: revolution, historical choice, power, society, mass movements, freedom, Bolshevism

The year of the centenary of the Russian Revolution is coming to an end. It is time to draw conclusions. The author’s key takeaway is that Russia in fact was unable to escape from the “captivity” of the October Revolution. Experts and the public focus their attention on the Bolshevik Revolution, whereas almost no one is interested in the February Revolution and almost everyone denounces it. The attitude to the Tsarist Russia remains super negative. The collective memory tends to ascribe all of the country’s historical achievements to the Soviet era. The author attempts to reveal the multifaceted nature of the Russian Revolution, its complex socio-psychological structure and nonlinearity of events. She asks whether the Russian Revolution can be considered on equal terms with the European revolutions of the late 18th — early 20th centuries, and her answer is negative. The year of 1917 opened a series of revolutions of a “new type” that literally were a reaction to modernity rather than locomotives of history. The historical end of the Russian Revolution is a country’s fail- ure in its centuries-long evolution towards greater freedom and modern social structure. Even today Russia has not overcome this legacy.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-101-122

Pages: 101-122

Antithesis

Alexander Shvyrkov

About Moral of Revolutuonaries (but not Revolutionary Moral)

Keywords: revolution, revolutionaries, moral, revolutionary moral, moral of revolutionaries, religion

Political Science, as a rule, considers revolution in isolation, or abstraction, from moral qualities of those people who make it. Moreover, even when political scientists view revolution through the lenses of moral categories, i.e., whether “revolution is good or bad”, whether it “brings maximum benefit to a maximum number of people” etc., moral of revolutionaries per se, or their personal, everyday moral, their moral as people, is still overlooked. A.Shvyrkov believes it is high time this topic should be addressed and outlines a number of possible approaches to its development.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-123-132

Pages: 123-132

Cathedra

Alexander Ostroverkhov

In Searching for Theory of One-Party Dominance: World Experience of Studying Dominant-Party Systems (II)

Keywords: theory of one-party dominance, dominant party, one-party dominance cycle, Maurice Duverger, Giovanni Sartori

The article reviews more than 65-year experience of studying dominant-party systems based on the analysis of a set of empirical and theoretical works devoted to the phenomenon of one-party dominance. In the second part of the article (for the first part see Politeia, 2017, No 3) A.Ostroverkhov examines the existing definitions of a dominant-party system and assesses the prospects for the development of the theory of one-party dominance. In his opinion, it is impossible to understand what really constitutes one-party dominance and why dominant-party systems are formed without returning to theoretical and methodological achievements within the framework of the interpretive paradigm, especially dialectics, which proposes contradictions between positivism and anti-positivism should be taken into account and overcome.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-133-149

Pages: 133-149

Gubernatorial readings

History and Politics: How our Present and Future are Connected to our Past? Thirtieth Gubernatorial Readings. Tyumen, October 10th, 2017

Keywords: history, 1917 Revolution, historical memory, politics of memory, dialogue space

The material published here is a report on the Thirtieth Gubernato- rial Readings held in Tyumen, October 10th, 2017, under the framework of the joint project conducted by the journal Politeia and the administration of Tyumen region. The topic of the Readings is politics of memory in Russia and abroad. The lecture is delivered by A.I.Miller, Professor at the European University (St. Petersburg) and Central European University (Budapest).

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-150-177

Pages: 150-177

Book Review

Leonid Bliakher

Repopularization of Classics (Weber M. Power and Politics / Translated from German by B.M.Skuratov, A.F.Filippov; foreword by A.F.Filippov, comments by T.A.Dmitriev, A.F.Filippov. — Moscow.: RIPOL classic, 2017)

Keywords: Max Weber, power, politics, bureaucracy, modernity

L.Bliakher in his review of the re-edition of the works by Max Weber, one of the renowned classics of the world sociology, attempts to explicate those new meanings that compilers of the volume and commentators found in the chrestomathy texts. According to the reviewer’s assessment, the very composition of the book and the introductory article by A.Filippov set out a new, quite unusual context for comprehending works collected within one volume, demonstrating how purely theoretical tools can be used to analyze current political issues. Thereby the classic’s masterpieces are consonant with the tasks that social and political sciences face today, when searching for tools to study an increasingly complex reality is becoming the main intellectual challenge.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-178-182

Pages: 178-182


Andrey Teslya

Constitutionalist Interpretation Of Russian Revolution History (Medushevsky A.N. Political History of the Russian Revolution: Norms, Institutions, Forms of Social Mobilization in the 20th Century. — Moscow, St. Petersburg: Center for Humanitarian Initiatives, 2017)

Keywords: political history, Russian revolution, public-legal order, constitutionalism

In this article A.Teslya analyzes a new monograph written by Andrey Medushevsky, a recognized expert in the field of the sociology of law, political history and the history of the Russian political, primarily constitutional, thought of the second half of the 19th — 20th centuries. The author comes to the conclusion that the book is both culminating — with respect to numerous works devoted to the Russian constitutionalists and various aspects of the Russian modern political history — and fresh, offering new research lenses indi- cated in its title — holistic political Russian history with the history of the Russian constitutionalism as its heart.

DOI: 10.30570/2078-5089-2017-87-4-183-188

Pages: 183-186