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 groupsRich in natural resources (oil & minerals)

in Siberia.

Historical Overview

≠ ≠ Western Europe (Late Absolutism: serfdom and slavery)

Markets glued ≠≠ Despotic power glued RussiaWestern Europe 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 policepolitical & secret police

19th Century’s Failed LiberalizationAlexander IAlexander I’s attempt of reform stopped by

Napoleonic wars. Alexander’s death in 1825 (problems of succession) Liberal reform crushed.

Nicholas INicholas I (anti-modern, anti- Enlightenment), dies in the Crimean war (1853-56). Russian defeat. Nicholas I dies in the war

Alexander IIAlexander II: Time of (Limited) ReformLiberation of serfs (1871), allows regional assemblies, encourages industrialization (but opposes a constitutional regime). Assassinated in 1881

(Russian traditions: political police, political (Russian traditions: political police, political repression, and anarchism) repression, and anarchism)

The Last Absolutist StateAlexander III: renewed political repression (15 years)Nicholas II: Bloody Sunday (father Gapon) 1905 RevolutionSergei Eisenstein’s October The tsar promises civil liberties and a legislature (the Duma)1914 Russia enters WWI1917 riots lead to the Revolution in February (Lenin’s April

Theses). Moderate government (Liberal/Socialist) led by Kerensky. Brief experience with Liberal democracyBrief 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 PolicyNew 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 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 Soviets ((“All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers', “All-Russia Congress of Soviets of Workers',

Peasants, Cossacks' and Red Army Soldiers' Deputies”)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 Individuals or oligarchiesoligarchies)

• De facto authority of the General Secretary of the General Secretary of the Communist Party 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• 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 Methods2-Glasnost and democratization3-Programs of Reform4-Multiple demands of reform…Crisis

• Pandora’s box• Gorbachev creates a presidential systempresidential system and becomes

President (March 1990)

Yeltsin

1989-91 Yeltsin gains support in MoscowJune 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?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 PutinVladmir 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

Executive powerExecutive power: Strong Presidency (rule by decree—decrees must cohere with the legal framework, veto power).

Chief of State: Chief of State: President (no vice-president) Head of government: Head of government: Premier (appointed by the President)

Cabinet (appointed by the President)Presidential Administration (huge bureaucratic apparatus)Security Council

Legislative PowerLegislative 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.

JudiciaryJudiciaryConstitutional Court: (19 judges-cannot be fired)

1993 Constitution

(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 economyWeak 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:Democracy & the Market: Friends or Enemies?

Mancur Olson: Power & ProsperityRational Choice tradition (Individuals = Maximizers)State ≈ Bandits (maximizer individuals) (Public Goods)Different GAMESDifferent GAMES

Predatory Bandits: Predatory Bandits: to take as much as possible from a place and then leave (Short Term)

Stationary Bandits: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 arrangementsdemocratic 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.