Political History/Culture | Political Process | Instititutions | Public Policy | Key Terms

RUSSIA

political history/culture

Tsarist Regimes

• Absolutist – tsar wielded absolute power over the subjects of the realm
• Peter the Great (1682-1725) & Catherine the Great (1762-1796) brought Russian society
  closer to Western European models although by the end of the 17th century Russia was
  territorially the largest state in the world, Russia’s imperial reach generally exceeded actual
  grasp because its administrative capacity was riddled with lack of efficiency
• Rulers attempted to legitimate their absolute power by appealing to pride in tradition,
  empire, and divine right

Communist Revolution and Soviet Order

Nicholas II –

• Bosheviks took over in 1917

Vladimir Lenin (1917-1924)

• Leader of Russian Communist Party
• First head of Soviet Russian Government

Stalin (1924-1953)

• Power further centralized
• Totalitarian regime
• The combined cost of war and terror under Stalin staggering
• Stalin left behind a heavy degree of personalized rule, uncertainty and insecurity for
  rulers and rules alike, a high reliance on a largely autonomous secret police, and a heavily
  militarized economy

Kruschev

• Succeeded Stalin (1953-1971)
• A political moderate and was never able to filly control the Soviet state and party

Brezhnev (1964-1982)

• Renamed position “General Secretary” and instituted a period of conservative rule until
  his death in 1982

Mikhail Gorbachev

• Moved to strengthen his own political base and to carry out a program of reform
• Called for a political democratization, as well as legalized private, market-oriented
  enterprise for individual and cooperative business and encouraged them to fill the many
  gaps in the economy left by the inefficiency of the state sector
• Called for law governed state (pravove gosudarstvo) – state power subordinate to law

Yeltsin

• Named himself prime minister; parliament refused to adopt a new constitution that gave
  him powers he demanded
• Nearly impeached in 1993
• 1993-constitutional draft approved by voters; Yeltsin established a system which he
  called “presidential republic”
• Dual executive, president appoints government with approval of parliament
• Give press a lot of power
• Like France, cohabitation can be a government arrangement

Putin

• Current head of the government

Political Culture

Russia has undergone two great Revolutionary upheavals

1. Tsarist autocracy fell and gave way to communist regime
2. Beginning of 1990’s, when communist regime was replaced by a regime espousing liberal
   democratic and market principles

• These experienced left their imprint on contemporary Russian political culture, for one
  observes a shift/transition from rural, uneducated populace to a society that is
  overwhelming urban and highly educated
• Researchers have found a stable core on commitment to democratic values in Russian
  society, however they have very low levels of confidence in existing political institutions

Longer Term Dynamics of Political Culture

1. Generational Change
   (Succession of political generations)
2. Rising Education Levels
   (Overtime, as Russian society consisted of more people with secondary and higher
   educational degrees, levels of support for democratic principles grew)
3. Urbanization of Society
   (The growth of the urban population has had significant but subtle effects on political
   culture, among them. The reinforcement of informal and cross cutting social ties that
   nurture independent sources of public opinion and mediate the political messages sent
   out by the rulers.)

Info

• The Soviet era dominated by an ethnic group, the Russians, whose language prevails in
  most educational and government institutions, and a religion, Russian Orthodoxy, that
  is professed by the majority of those citizens who admit to a religious preference.
• Russians continue to constitute the largest ethnic group in all but a handful of the Russian
  Federation’s nominally ethnic republics, but leaders in many of the republics and smaller
  ethnic jurisdictions have questioned the central government to grant measures of
  autonomy and other concessions in the name of other groups. The breakaway Republic
  of Chechnya has taken the process to its furthest extreme.
• Besides the Slavs (Russians, Ukranians, and Belarusians), who account for about 85
  percent of Russia’s population, three main ethnic groups and a handful of isolated
  smaller groups reside within the federation.
• The Altaic group includes mainly speakers of Turkic languages widely distributed in the
  middle Volga, the southern Ural Mountains, the North Caucasus, and above the Arctic
  Circle.
• The Uralic group, consisting of Finnic peoples living in the upper Volga, the far
  northwest,
  and the Urals, includes the Karelians, Komi, Mari, Mordovians, and Udmurts.
• The Caucasus group is concentrated along the northern slopes of the Caucasus
  Mountains.
• Many of the constituent autonomous republics and regions, delineated at various stages
  of tsarist or Soviet control, used the chaos and centrifugal force created by the breakup
  of the Soviet Union to move toward local sovereignty.
• The declaration of full independence by the Chechen Autonomous Republic was the most
  extreme result of such moves, some observers felt that the political and economic
  stability of the Russian Federation was threatened by the separatism of regions that
  were valuable because of their strategic location or natural resources.

The political process

Political Participation

SURGE AND EBB OF MASS PARTICIPATION

• Under the communist regime, mass participation in public organizations and political
  ceremonies was widespread but certainly controlled and generally formalistic
• Public associations had little autonomy of the Communist Party, and served as a means
  of directing and monitoring society
• Gorbachev’s democratizing reforms in the late 1980’s quickly opened up opportunities
  for new forms of mass participation
• This caused millions of people to be drawn into politics through participation in strikes,
  mass demonstrations, independent publications, and electoral campaigning
• Generally, nationalism inspired the largest share of mass protest; far more strikes and
  demonstrations were related to ethnic movements than to economic demands
• Since the early 1990’s, the most widespread forms of political participation are voting
  and strikes

ELECTORAL PARTICIPATION

• The early elections of 1989 and 1990 were held largely without reference to party
  affiliations; these elections let voters show their opposition to the old political elites
• The 1993 and 1995 parliamentary elections allowed voters to choose between
  ideologically distinct electoral organizations; however, these elections coincided with
  a backlash against the initial stages of democratic radicalism

STRIKES AND PROTEST

• After the breakup of the USSR, massive strikes and protests decreased; however, as
  economic distress deepened, strikes, and protests over wage arrears have grown
  increasingly frequent
• In 1995, there were nearly 9,000 strikes (only 514 in 1994)
• Teachers who are protesting unpaid wages hold the vast majority of strikes; miners’
  strikes are common too
• Despite the number of strikes and protests, neither trade unions nor political parties
  have succeeded in mobilizing labor into a strong, national political force
• The main significant large labor union is FITUR (Federation of Independent Trade
  Unions of Russia)
• Most labor protests are directed at the government rather than against employers

Elite Recruitment

• Many elites were swept away in the system’s change of 1989/1990

SOVIET REGIME

• Apparatchik used
• Records on all individuals
• Nomenklatura (list of names)
• Those on the list are the true ruling class

NEW SYSTEM

• Nomenklatura crumbled
• Most members of old ruling elites adapted
• Little turnover in power, but future power crumbled
• New Elites are “elected”
• Corruption of system by old elites
• New elites ten years younger than old
• Alternative routes to power than the Nomenklatura still exist

institutions

The Executive Branch

• President is head of state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and chairman of the
  Security Council
• His powers include: picks prime ministers (must then be approved by parliament), to
  dissolve the state Duma (the lower house), to pass decrees, to all parliamentary elections,
  to appoint the central bank chairman and judges, to call referendums, and call for martial
  law in case of an emergency.
• The Prime Minister selects the government, and the president approves the decision
• The government consists of the Prime Minister and other kinds of ministers, who do not
  have to be a part of Parliament.
• The government’s duties are to: create the budget, to regulate the uniformity of the
  monetary system, implement security, defense, financial, and credit policy, enforce the
  rule of law, and to ensure uniformity of policy making.

Legislative

• The Parliament consists of an upper and lower house
• (Upper House) Federation Council has 178 representatives who are elected for 2-year
  terms, and are selected from 89 regions throughout Russia.
• This is the Federal Center
• The Federation Council’s jobs are to approve states of emergency, call for presidential
  elections (every four years), approve judge appointments, and approve legislation from
  the State Duma.
• The subjects of the Federation elect Parliament, issue laws, and manage local authority
• (Lower House) State Duma consists of 450 deputies who are elected through
  constituencies.
• The election of members is performed as half first-past-the-post and half proportional.
• The State Duma’s job is to approve the Prime Minister, pass votes of no confidence, and
  draft laws with permission of the government.

The Judicial Branch

• The Judiciary is a new and recent edition to the Russian system.
• These courts work independently of each other and their judges are selected for life
  terms.
• The three types of courts are Constitutional court, Supreme court (civil and criminal
  cases), and Supreme Arbitration court (economic disputes).

Pre-Reform

• Prior to Gorbachev’s reforms the government was set up with a different format.
• The Party consisted of a General Secretary, Politburo, Central Committee, and Party
  Congress.
• The Government contained a Chairman, presidium, and a Supreme Soviet
  (The Bureaucracy consisted of the Chairman, Presidium, and Council of Ministries.)
• The functions of Pre-Gorbachev reforms centered more around the party as the central
  control of government activities. Other institutions served as somewhat of a rubber
  stamp on party policies. This was a necessity in order to appear to be a legitimate
  government system.
• There were also more members in the party structure and less in the government and
  Bureaucratic structure.
• The institutions of Pre-Gorbachev Russia are similar to present-day China in that the
  Party control dominants all other forms.

Post-Reform

• Russia’s system when it was changed was made to reflect the institutions of France and
  Finland.
• As of Yeltsin, Russia has been declared a Presidential Republic This said to be a
  combination of the United States, France, and prior Russian institutions.
• Career managers and administrators carry out the actual work in the government, not
  party politicians.
• The major problems facing Russian government advancement are the differing ideals
  about federalism and centralization, corruption throughout all levels, and the military
  misuse (i.e. Chechnya).

Public policy

Economic

• Not a strong hand, a steady one
• Create a stable framework of laws
• Lacks infrastructure of laws and institutions needed for secure/efficient transactions
• Much illegal behavior (i.e. tax evasion occurs)
• Greater decline then the great depression
• Shock Therapy not working so well
• Mass communications and education systems, but declining living standards
• Huge class problems
• Huge poverty list
• Economic reforms have had undesirable outcomes (caused by corruption)

Education

• Russian politicians know that education and the future of the younger generation will be
  a key factor in country’s next elections – both parliamentary and presidential.
• For instance, it will be the first time that many young people, those born in the early 80s,
  will have their chance to pass judgment on the current political regime. It is they and
  their parents who have suffered most because of the worsening conditions within schools,
  universities and colleges due to lack of funds for equipment, general education supplies,
  building maintenance and teachers’ pay.
• Now Russia’s education system, starved of government funding, is at the sharp end of
  the worst elements of market economy supply-and-demand conditions. It has become
  a system where a good education and even fair assessment is mainly reserved for the
  wealthy.

People

• A dramatic increase in popular opinion of current President Putin in comparison to
  President Yeltsin during his crisis-ridden economy and politics
• There are doubts, however, about the durability of this unaccustomed stability based on
  political structures that are not very transparent.
• But there are also basic questions about how much stress public institutions can sustain,
  the integrity of officials at all levels, and, not least, the true intentions of those in power
  with regard to social policy.
• It is uncertain whether there can be continued improvement in living standards because
  of the acute threat of inflation; moreover, the laws that have recently been approved can
  lead to enhanced growth only after a lead time of several months.

Chechnya

• The only autonomous jurisdictions that refused to sign the 1992 Federation Treaty were
  Chechnya and Tatarstan, both of which are rich in oil.
• In the first half of 1996, Chechnya continued to pose the biggest obstacle to the quelling
  of separatism among the components of the Russian Federation.
• Chechnya long has had a reputation in Russia as center of organized crime and corrupt
  business practices.
• Russia feared that a move to end the war short of victory would create a cascade of
  secession attempts by other ethnic minorities and present a new target to extreme
  nationalist Russian factions.
• Fighting continues to be a problem especially in regards to terrorist tactics by Chechen

key terms