The Russian Federation
Russia
Eurasia (10 time zones) 1.8 times the
territory of the US
Secular tradition of authoritarianism, police
state, and violence against the poor,
minorities, and peasants.
Multiple ethnic groups
Rich in natural resources (oil & minerals)
in Siberia.
Historical Overview
≠ Western Europe (Late Absolutism: serfdom
and slavery)
Markets glued
Western Europe
≠
Despotic power glued Russia
nomads and free peasants
Roots in the Muscovite state (12th century)
Tsars (“Ivan the Terrible”…Absolutist monarchs)
18th century Russian Enlightenment: Saint
Petersburg (thousands die in building the city
in a swamp)
Precursors in matters of political & secret police
19th Century’s Failed Liberalization
Alexander I’s attempt of reform stopped by
Napoleonic wars. Alexander’s death in 1825
(problems of succession) Liberal reform crushed.
Nicholas I (anti-modern, anti- Enlightenment), dies
in the Crimean war (1853-56). Russian defeat.
Nicholas I dies in the war
Alexander II: Time of (Limited) Reform
Liberation of serfs (1871), allows regional
assemblies, encourages industrialization (but
opposes a constitutional regime). Assassinated in
1881
(Russian traditions: political police, political
repression, and anarchism)
The Last Absolutist State
Alexander III: renewed political repression (15 years)
Nicholas II: Bloody Sunday (father Gapon) 1905 Revolution
Sergei Eisenstein’s October
The tsar promises civil liberties and a legislature (the Duma)
1914 Russia enters WWI
1917 riots lead to the Revolution in February (Lenin’s April
Theses). Moderate government (Liberal/Socialist) led
by Kerensky. Brief experience with Liberal democracy
1917 (October) revolution. Radicalization of the revolution
(Bolsheviks). Lenin’s leadership
• Communist Party of Soviet 60 Union (CPSU), also known
as the Bolschevik Party. Centralized and authoritarian
party organized by Lenin (Vanguard).
Lenin's New Economic Policy: mixed system controlled by
the govt. with participation of small private companies.
Economic growth.
Stalinism/Totalitarianism
1924 Lenin's death  Stalin (Central
planning) Major and fast industrialization
of the country  Collectivization (state
farms) (20,000,000 die) and Purges (1937)
• Totalitarian regime. The Bolschevik Party
dominated all aspects of society and the
economy.
• Party’s ties with the government and KGB
(security police, an essential instrument of
party’s domination)
• Police State
• Chronology of the Soviet Period
Main (Political?) Institutions
• For traditional Marxism, politics is a tool of class
domination, and parliamentary arrangements and political
parties represent different class alliances
– No need for politics, parties (or the state) in a classless
society.
• Soviets (“All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers',
Peasants, Cossacks' and Red Army Soldiers' Deputies”)
and the Congress of Soviets within a Federation.
• Age of suffrage: 18. Vote for representatives of the local
soviet (every 2½ years). Representatives choose the
highest authorities (Central Committee)
– Politburo (policy authority)
• “Partocracy”: absolute overlap between party and state
– 300,000 officials (Top leadership: Individuals or oligarchies)
• De facto authority of the General Secretary of the
Communist Party after Stalin (elected by the Central
Committee).
Culture or Institutions?
• Soviets on paper
• Soviets (?) in reality
How far can we go in transforming patterns
of political culture?
From Stalin to Gorbachev
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1953 Stalin’s death.
Krushnev’s 1954 speech denouncing Stalin’s crimes
Khrushchev/Brezhnev/Andropov/Chernenko/Gorbachev
Attempts of reform
Mid-1980s Glasnost (openness) and perestroika. Party
secretary-general Gorbachev followed Krushnev’s attempts.
Goal: to make Soviet socialism more modern and efficient
and to give a voice to Soviet citizens. Steps:
1-Traditional Soviet Methods
2-Glasnost and democratization
3-Programs of Reform
4-Multiple demands of reform…Crisis
• Pandora’s box
• Gorbachev creates a presidential system and becomes
President (March 1990)
Yeltsin
1989-91 Yeltsin gains support in Moscow
June 1991, Yeltsin becomes President of the
Russian Republic (and begins disputing power to
Gorbachev)
Five republics claim independence
• Gorbachev intends to (re)create a Union
• August 1991 (Russian) Attempt of military coup
leads to Gorbachev’s abandoning government
and a collapse of the Soviet Union  chaotic
transition
• Birth of the Russian Federation (December
1991)
Russian Reforms
"Shock Therapy" (opposed by parliament
and the vice-president)
Modern markets or "economic genocide“?
1992: Yeltsin Vs. the Parliament
A new type of government?
–Yeltsin: a strong presidency (≈ France’s Fifth Republic)
–Parliament: parliamentary system
•Stalemate: Yeltsin’s rule by decree
– April 1993: Referendum (Yeltsin or the Parliament? Yeltsin
won for 59% with a turnout of only 39%, a result deemed
illegal by the Constitutional Court)
•Yeltsin ordered the dissolution of the Congress and the Supreme
Soviet (declared illegal by the Constitutional Court), suspended
the Constitution and called for elections for a new parliament, the
State Duma, and a referendum to vote for his own project of
Constitution
•The Parliament asked the military for support against Yeltsin &
designated “President” Rutskoi (vice president)
•Yeltsin sent troops against the Parliament (150 deaths, 1,000
wounded, 2,000 jailed)
Yeltsin’s Hegemony
• Authoritarian rule
• Banned opposition
• Removal of members of the Constitutional
Court and provincial leaders who opposed
dissolving the Parliament
• Call for parliamentary elections on
December 1993 (triumph of Yeltsin’s
opposition—Zhirinovsky’s nationalist
Liberal Democratic party, the Agrarian and
the Communist parties)
Boris Yeltsin 1991-1999.
Yeltsin’s government: inept, corrupt and
too closely tied to the economic
oligarchs who had become very wealthy
with the privatization of Soviet-era
assets.
•Not so glorious departure
•Yeltsin picked Vladmir Putin, a former KGB
officer, to replace him (appointed prime
minister and then elected as president)
1993 Constitution
Federal System (Government centered
in Moscow/ 89 different subnational
units).
Bilateral agreements between each
region and the federal government
1993 Constitution
Executive power: Strong Presidency (rule by decree—
decrees must cohere with the legal framework, veto
power).
Chief of State: President (no vice-president)
Head of government: Premier (appointed by the President)
Cabinet (appointed by the President)
Presidential Administration (huge bureaucratic apparatus)
Security Council
Legislative Power
Russian Federal Assembly (Bicameral Legislature)
State Duma (Lower Chamber ): 450 members, 225 are
elected through PR and 225 are elected through SMD. 5%
threshold. The Duma has power to impeach the President
and dissolve the government.
Federation Council (Upper Chamber: ) (178 members,
chosen by the 89 regions). Must approve (major)
presidential appointments in the judiciary.
Judiciary
Constitutional Court: (19 judges-cannot be fired)
(Multi?) Party System
-Passage from one-party system to
many (changing) parties
-Strong nationalism
-Survival of communism (electoral
potential varies)
Putin
• 1999 Yeltsin’s resignation
• April 2000 election: Putin wins over 11
candidates with 53% of votes
• Weak State, paralyzed economy
• Economic collapse, organized crime, corruption,
disintegration of public health and public
education, generalized destitution, Chechnyan
separatism, terrorism…
• “Strong state” policy & struggle against regional
governors and their political and economic
leadership… Human rights?
Roger E. Kanet & John S.
Reshetar’s Conclusion
• By 1996, Russia had made substantial
progress in establishing the bases for a
functioning democratic system
• Challenges: strengthening the rule of law,
respect for human rights, improving
economic performance
Failed Crusade?
• 1998 Default
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn (2000): “As a result of the
Yeltsin era, all the fundamental sectors of our state,
economic, cultural, and moral life have been
destroyed or looted. We live literally amid ruins, but
we pretend to have a normal life… We heard that
great reforms were being carried out in the country.
They were false reforms, because they left more
than half of our country’s people in poverty… What
does it mean to continue these reforms? Will we
continue looting and destroying Russia until
nothing is left?... God fobid these reforms should
continue.”
Failed Crusade? (Cohen)
• Stephen Cohen: reforms during the 1990s “has
contributed to a human tragedy on a massive
scale and, for the first time in history, the
destabilization of a fully nuclearized country.” (xii)
• Flourishing of two cities, Moscow & Saint
Petersburg, amidst poverty (70-75% population)
• More new orphans appeared in the 1990s than
those resulting from 30,000,000 Russian
casualties during WWII
• Robber Barons
Democracy & the Market:
Friends or Enemies?
Mancur Olson: Power & Prosperity
Rational Choice tradition (Individuals = Maximizers)
State ≈ Bandits (maximizer individuals) (Public Goods)
Different GAMES
Predatory Bandits: to take as much as possible from a place
and then leave (Short Term)
Stationary Bandits: have incentives to stay and make a
smaller but permanent profit (Long Term)… Rulers
Humanity has made progress to the extent that has provided
“incentive for roving banding leaders to settle down and
become rulers.” (Olson)
The only way of replacing banditry for rule arises from
democratic arrangements, which emerge from “a balance of
power among a small number of leaders, groups, or families—
that is, by a broadly equal dispersion of power that makes it
imprudent for any leader or group to attempt to overpower the
others.”
Develop “games” (coercion and incentives) to lead self-interested
individuals to act in ways that are compatible with the general
good.