Maslovskii M. The Soviet Model of Modernity and Russia's Post-communist Political Transformation. HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE 2/2015 (original) (raw)

The Soviet Model of Modernity and Russia’s Post-communist Political Transformations

HISTORICKÁ SOCIOLOGIE

The article discusses political processes in post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of the multiple modernities theory. A study of Russia's political transformation on the basis of this approach allows us to reconsider the obstacles to democratization that existed in the 1990s and the socio-cultural preconditions for de-democratization in the 2000s. The author draws on Johann Arnason's analysis of the Soviet model of modernity. From this perspective the Soviet model possessed only some civilizational traits and did not lead to a sustainable civilizational pattern. Nevertheless, remnants of that model and the imperial legacy of the Soviet period influenced Russian politics of the last two decades. The dynamics of democratization and de-democratization in Russia represent a case of path dependency which is both post-communist and post-imperial.

The Soviet Model of Modernity and Russia's Post-communist Political Transformation

Historicka Sociologie, 2015

The article discusses political processes in post-Soviet Russia from the perspective of the multiple modernities theory. A study of Russia's political transformation on the basis of this approach allows us to reconsider the obstacles to democratization that existed in the 1990s and the socio-cultural preconditions for de-democratization in the 2000s. The author draws on Johann Arnason's analysis of the Soviet model of modernity. From this perspective the Soviet model possessed only some civilizational traits and did not lead to a sustainable civilizational pattern. Nevertheless, remnants of that model and the imperial legacy of the Soviet period influenced Russian politics of the last two decades. The dynamics of democratization and de-democratization in Russia represent a case of path dependency which is both post-communist and post-imperial.

The Prospects of Democratization of Russia: Between Slavophilism and Westernization

1999

of the report This report on the Russian democratic prospect in the contexte of civilization struggles presents the cultural factors of the regime transformation in that country. It is generally estimated that the democracy in Russia will fail, because there are too many obstacles to it. To them belong, first of all, the perplexity of many the Russians, being in an awkward position between the expansive Slavophilism and the equally active Westernization. 1. The transformation in Russia might be studied by referring to the general concepts and patterns of transition to democracy, as elaborated in relation to the similar processes taking place in other countries. For example, according to the D. Rustov`s thesis, the transition might be devided into the preliminary (1987-1990), decisional (1990-1993) and consolidation stages, while the last started in 1993 without being finished to that date. 2. In Russia, there are not a tradition of liberal democracy, but it is a wide spread opinion ...

Revolutionary Passage: From Soviet To Post-Soviet Russia 1985-2000

Revolutionary Passage: From Soviet To Post-Soviet Russia 1985-2000, 2005

Numerous accounts of pro-democracy rebellion in perestroika-era Russia explain democratization as an effect of the formation of a Russian "middle class." While survey, interview and archival data on the Moscow branch of Russia's united democratic opposition in 1990-91 (Democratic Russia or DR) identifies intellectuals and professional as DR's primary base, the study emphasizes the reproduction of Soviet-style political authoritarianism within DR. By developing an institutional profile of Soviet specialists as a state-dependent social estate that distinguishes Soviet specialists from Western middle classes, the study provides an alternative account of democratic sentiments among Russian specialists framed in terms of the disintegration of the Communist Party's organizational capacities and the demonstration effect of relative Western prosperity. The assumption that the mere numerical increase of Russian specialists explains democratization is thus refuted.