Chronicles of a democracy postponed

Abstract

We explain a lack of civic culture in today's Russia, closely related to a democratic deficit in the country, by a path dependency which has originated at the critical juncture of transition to market economy. Suppression of democracy in the early 1990s to expedite unpopular reform exposed the new institutional order to oligarchic capture and set in motion a vicious circle of extractive economic and political institutions. The latter have been shaping views and attitudes in the society via institutional learning, continuously suppressing civic culture and solidifying social foundations for extractive institutions. We present evidence from the World Values Survey supporting the above conclusions.

Political Culture and Participation in Russia and Kazakhstan: A New Civic Culture with Contestation?

“…12 Laura Henry also shows the following two issues: first, Russians are more likely to engage in complaint making as their political participation, and second, complaint making is unlikely to promote democratic change rather it contributes to authoritarian resilience. 13 On the one hand, there is a lack of civic culture in Russia, according to some scholars such as Gaber et al, 14 and in Kazakhstan (e.g. Akkuly).…”

“…Tabellini (2008) and Weingast (1997) (both cited in Gaber et al 2019) stress the key role of civic culture for democratic performance. 16 This 'twin deficit'deficit of civic culture and democracyleads scholars to describe Russia as 'competitive, or electoral, authoritarianism', (Levitsky and Way 2010 cited in Gaber et al 2019), 17 'electoral clanism', and 'oligarchy' (Robinson 2003 cited in Kumar 2014). 18 However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, there have been 15 legislative and presidential elections in Russia (Table 1) and 13 in Kazakhstan (Table 2).…”

“…Likewise, data from World Values Surveys show a dramatic decline in Russian 'civic culture between 1990 and 1995, and its stagnation and even further decline thereafter'. 30 The Centre for Economic and Political Reforms conducted a sociological study in 25 regions of Russia from January to March 2016. 31 The quantitative phase was supplemented by a qualitative method (in-depth 7-8 interviews in each region).…”

“…37 All this is already a positive sign that participant and contestant political cultures are gaining popularity, especially among young people, and the development of Western civic culture can be a question of generational change. By their subject matter, protests were distributed as follows: % protests against pension reform 46.5 political protests (associated with both federal and regional, or in rare cases with local agenda) 16.4 protests related to environmental problems, including so-called 'Garbage protests' 7.3 protests of deceived equity holders 7 protests related to other socio-economic problems such as optimisation of the social sphere, growth of housing and communal service tariffs, etc.…”

Models Of "Center - Regions" Relations In The Russian Socio-Economic Development Strategy

“…But in the performance of this model, which is described above and is preserved in Russia at the present time, there can be no talk of advanced development. On the contrary, Russia is, as noted by Gaber et al (2016), in a state of clear rejection of the democratic arrangement.…”