Title: How Russia Is Not Governed: Reflections on Russian Political Development
Abstract: How Russia Is Not Governed: Reflections on Russian Political Development, Alien C. Lynch. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 276 pp. $70.00.How Russia Is Not Governed expresses little optimism for the prospect of stabilizing and deepening liberal democracy in Russia. Much of the volume focuses on the problematic character of the political economy since the collapse of the Union, although chapters 1 and 2 (Historical Patterns of Russian Political Development and Soviet Legacies for Post-Soviet respectively) provide sound prologue. These chapters are likely to be more useful for undergraduate and graduate students than for professional scholars of Russian and history. Overall, the book is well-researched and well-documented, depicting as problematic Russia's fragile accomplishments of economic growth and governmental consolidation since 1999.Alien C. Lynch's central point that strong state has been historically necessary for Russia, and will continue to be so for various reasons, but such state inherently presents problems for the establishment and maintenance of liberal democracy. Lynch offers that ftlhe strength of the central government remains critically important for Russian political and economic development and even for Russia's prospects as distinct civilization (10) and compelling facts of Russian (and especially Siberian) economic geography tend to make the costs of production in Russia multiple of what they are almost anywhere else in the world, rendering application of liberal model of economic development of questionable relevance to Russian requirements (13). The dilemma is how to establish and maintain such state without it becoming leviathan that would make liberal democracy nearly impossible and eventually to throttle long-term economic vibrancy. Based on Russia's political economy since the collapse of the Union, Lynch has little optimism about the latter. Accordingly, the reader should not be surprised to encounter this glum forecast near the end of the book: fplrospects thus remain bleak for any broad-based Russian recovery, view echoed by Russian President Putin in his 2003 State of the Nation speech (249).Further, the experiences of Russia under both the tsarist and regimes had the effect of reinforcing patrimonial and neopatrimonial political orientation in varying degrees among both elites and the mass public, thus immensely compounding the prospect of rapid, orderly, and stable transition to liberal democratic political order founded upon market economy and ordered by an accountable, responsive law-based state. Few in the West would dispute the author's general conclusion about the basis for stable political democracy: a political-institutional foundation in the agencies and procedures of representative government, social-psychological foundation in the prevalence of toleration and civic spirit in the citizenry, and socialeconomic foundation in economic well-being and reasonably large and secure middle class (132). However, some observers in the West, and doubtless some in Russia itself, will likely dispute the degree to which these are characteristics of contemporary Russia; the present book reflects scant evidence that they are. …
Publication Year: 2005
Publication Date: 2005-07-01
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot