Russia And The Steps Toward A Western Democracy

Throughout its long history, Russia has been trapped in a continuous cycle of authoritarian regimes; only interrupted briefly with periods of tumultuous democratic transitions that were plagued by poor bureaucracy and weak institutions. Therefore, time and time again, Russia has turned towards authoritarianism. In the late 1900’s to early 2000’s, Russia again saw the fall of democracy coincide with the rise of a competitive authoritarian regime. This rise of competitive authoritarianism in Russia in the late 1900’s to early 2000’s was largely the result of the resource curse which granted Putin’s Administration false economic performance legitimacy. This in turn reinvigorated past strongman ideals, while at the same time solidified negative

The democratization, economic liberalization, and eventual collapse of the Soviet Union is commonly attributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika and Glasnost reforms during the period of 1985-1991. This purpose of these reforms is still a trenchant question as the countries of the old Soviet Union, particular Russia, are being pressured to further liberalize their economies.

The Soviet Union, which was once a world superpower in the 19th century saw itself in chaos going into the 20th century. These chaoses were marked by the new ideas brought in by the new leaders who had emerged eventually into power. Almost every aspect of the Soviet Union was crumbling at this period both politically and socially, as well as the economy. There were underlying reasons for the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union and eventually Eastern Europe. The economy is the most significant aspect of every government. The soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1. fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government

The government of the modern day Russian Federation must be traced back to the early 20th century in order to understand its current posture. In 1917, tired of the sequestering limits of a Tsarist system, a small revolutionary group called the Bolshevik Party gained control of Russia . The Bolshevik Party, led by Lenin and inspired by Marxist ideology, attempted to establish a Constitute Assembly. However, a post- revolutionary environment and an unsupportive public forced Lenin to abolish rival political parties and establish a dictatorship to retain The Bolshevik Party’s power. In 1919, the

Russia began its reform with political liberalization, and many believe that Russia’s failure was partly due to focusing on political reform first and they should have begun with economic reforms which China had done. This lead to political turmoil so severe that in 1989-1993 workers were politically neutralized and unable to stop Yeltsin’s liberal market reforms. But, a small group of oligarchs helped to

Whenever people think of communism, Russian SFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) and China, as two biggest communist polity, always come to people’s mind first. Likewise, at any time people mention authoritarianism, they will never miss the two biggest authoritarian regimes: Russia (Russian Federation) and China. The former, with the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, the world’s first and largest communist polity and the prime facilitator of communist political system came to an end, which creates the modern Russia Federation, a country that still persists in authoritarianism but applies democratic political system and constitution. The latter, after experience multiple destructive invasions and humiliating

The Russian state has been characterized by its strong heritage of powerful, autocratic leadership. This domination by small ruling elite has been seen throughout Russia's history and has transferred into its economic history. Throughout the Russian czarist period, to the legacy of seventy years of communism; Russia has been a country marked by strong central state planning, a strict command economy and an overall weak market infrastructure (Goldman, 2003). Self-interest, manipulation and corruption have all been present in the Russian economy, and have greatly helped the few as opposed to the many. To this day, Russia still struggles with creating a competitive and fair market.

At the end of the Cold War, Russia was faced with many problems, a decaying military, a failing economy and a population who was learning how to change from a communist country to a democratic country. The Cold War Period had greatly affected Russia and one of the first things to be noticed by the people were when prices on goods were no longer fixed. The idea of a free market system was new and not everyone was ready to except this new Russia. The country essentially had to rebuild itself. Former satellite countries were declaring independence as quick as they could. As people throughout the world watched, they were unsure if Russia would ever be able to shake their socialist/communist history. Currently Russia is one of the leading

The original Communist Manifesto described industrialization and capitalism as a prerequisite before the proletarians could arise and institute a communist government. However, many industrialized countries never went through this process and instead many less-developed countries developed the Marxist-Leninist model. Russia and China, which were largely agricultural countries, are examples of poorly developed infrastructure countries that found the greatest appeal in this ideology. The Marxist-Lenin model was able to find success in these less-developed countries because of its accessibility to Marx’s writings, and a large number of illiterate poor peasantries looking to improve their lives. The west largely

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1991 marked the fall of communism. Built with the idea of utopic society in mind, communism was supposed to be the end of inequality and despair for the Soviet’s. In theory, communism promises to provide more for the people and create a more prosperous economy than the capitalistic economies that exist in the US. Although seemingly a superior concept the Soviet’s soon discovered that a communistic economy has its faults. With a lack of incentives for businesses, and inefficient use of resources the Soviet’s soon realized they had a lower standard of living compared to capitalist economies, which led to the adoption of the market based economy you see in Russia today.

Since capitalism and democracy are literally by the people, the government must work closely with the people. One of Russia’s great mistakes happened when Yeltsin attempted to force capitalism upon the Russian people in the January of 1992. Instead of working alongside the people to create capitalism, Yeltsin used Gaidar’s price liberalization policy known as “shock therapy” (McCauley 1998, 59). Today, executive power recentralizes. Putin has used military power to establish central control in the executive branch which has given him control over defense, internal affairs, and security. (Chubarov 2001, 259). There is no strong government representing the people that has the power to change the current status. If a strong parliamentary branch of government is formed with power over the president, democracies can more fully represent and work with the people, matching their interests. Regional governments support capitalism more than a strong centralized President. Authoritarian regimes and capitalism don’t mix well, and Russia is the prime example for this.

I would take a risk to assert that at present time Russia does not have an ideology or a system of values able to unite the society. To say in short, I strongly argue that Russia needs a new strategy of development, a new national idea which can replace (or, in fact fill the vacuum remained after the collapse of) the old communist ideology which had been guiding Russian politics for nearly 75 years. We can, of course, discuss about the very necessity and the usefulness of an ideology or a national idea as such and whether it is not a mistake to create any national idea, because this idea may become an idee-fixe, which may mean intolerance to the others.

Russia’s economy is ranked 143rd freest in the 2015 index and has an economic score of 52.1. Russia has had gains in business freedom, freedom from corruption, property rights, government spending and a labor freedom that has been offset by declines in monetary freedom. In the Europe region, Russia is ranked 41st out of 43 countries, and its overall score is below the world average. Although Russia has had an increase in political and economic isolation, coupled with falling gas prices, its economic freedom score has increased by 1.6 points since 2011. A better outlook than what Greece has in their score. The declines in financial freedom and property rights have been the cause for the lack of overall progress

The similarities between Russia and China are well known and can be quickly summarised. These are countries with huge territories and population. Both have recent experience of dictatorial communist rule. Both now function in a manner that fails to match up to an ideal model of democracy. And of course, during the past generation both societies have been energetically engaged in a radical economic transition, moving away from state capitalism and towards a free-market economy. But despite these parallels, the economic achievements of the two countries are drastically different-at least in the public perception, and especially so in the minds of investors. Economically booming China is viewed as a spectacular success story, while slowly progressing Russia is typically seen as a relative failure.

Russia’s Return as a Superpower. There are concerns that Russia may once again “reassert itself militarily” (Wood 7). After the original fall of communism in 1991, Russia seemed to be on a path to democracy. Currently the notion of a democratic Russia seems to be fading as Russia “has been centralizing more and more power in the Kremlin” (Putin 2). Regional governors, who were once elected by the people, are now being appointed by Moscow.