Correspondence

Sir Tony Brenton, formerly British Ambassador to Moscow (2004-2008), considers in this article the Asian dimension of Russia. He considers the historical connections and importance of Asia (as opposed to Europe) in the development of Russia and the historical balance between Asian and European influence. This section pays particular attention to the development of Siberia and early encounters between Russia and China. He then examines shifting Russian attitudes towards Asia at significant moments in Russian history including the 19^th century (the Slavophile Movement), the Communist period, the post-Soviet 1990s and the current era under President Putin. The implications of the Ukraine crisis and the current relationship with China is studied. He concludes with a discussion of whether Russia is likely to see its future orientation as more towards China and Asia, and what implications Russia's deliberation about its future direction has for the western powers.     

Does everyday corruption affect how Russians view their political leadership?

Do Russians’ personal experiences with corruption influence how they evaluate their political leaders and, if so, in what direction? In addressing this question, we focus specifically on small-scale corruption that arises when Russians encounter employees of service provision organizations. We analyze survey data gathered in the summer of 2015 from Russia to trace the links between personal corrupt behavior and political attitudes. We show that participation in everyday corruption lowers a person’s support for the political regime, both as a bivariate relationship and in a multivariate model with controls. Being involved in corrupt transactions reduces support for the regime through two indirect mechanisms: by making the political leadership’s performance seem worse and by heightening perceptions that corruption is widespread among the country’s leaders. We find no support for arguments in the literature that bribery and other forms of bureaucratic corruption help citizens pursue their needs in the face of inefficient state institutions and less developed economies. In Russia, those who frequently encounter corruption are less, not more, happy with the regime.     

Military technology,missile defence,new global threats and south Africa

An examination of the increase in corruption in Russia and other countries in the Eastern European region, focusing on the links to morality.     

Rethinking Colonialism and the Origins of the Developmental State in East Asia

Previous studies on economic development in East Asia focus exclusively on the recent period (since the 1960s) and posit that East Asian “miracles” were largely a result of the state's exceptional capacity to implement consistent industrial policy. Yet, they neglect the question of the origins of the developmental state. To confront this neglect, this article makes a macro-historical comparison between Northeast and Southeast Asia, highlighting colonialism, the role of income inequality, and subsequent socio-economic transformations. It is argued that a crucial historical phase for new economic trajectory was the decolonisation period when East Asian countries had an opportunity to break away from negative colonial legacies. This article sheds new light on the ways in which colonialism shapes long-term economic development in East Asia.     

俄罗斯发展战略演变的理论逻辑

俄罗斯社会经济发展战略演变包括两个内容:调整的历史和内在的逻辑。俄罗斯经济结构的继承性是分析问题的历史起点,经济发展的内在规律是经济发展战略调整要遵循的理论逻辑。作为经济现代化的基础性制度保障,相对于技术工艺层面的创新,市场经济体制的完善更加重要,这不仅带来资源配置效率的提升,同时提出了保障市场经济体制有效运行的市场强化型政府的要求,由此更推动了国家的全面现代化。     

Stalinism and Russian Nationalism: A Reconceptualization

A sologist analyzes the idea of Russian nationalism as it evolved under Lenin and Stalin. Based on a reconsideration of Soviet history and of Stalin's and others' published statements, the article reexamines the relationship between Soviet and Russian identity and nationalism. The article concludes with discussion of the implications of this historical legacy for Putin's Russia.     

The politics of consensus: al-Nahda and the stability of the Tunisian transition

Abstract

Tunisia&s transition away from authoritarianism has been shaped by a politics of consensus, which has brought together representatives of the former regime with their historic adversary, the Islamist movement al-Nahda. This article argues that consensus politics was a legacy of the authoritarian regime that was re-produced during a democratizing transition. The politics of consensus was encouraged and enabled by al-Nahda, which prioritized its inclusion within this elite settlement to provide political security for itself and the broader transition. However, this came at a cost, engineering a conservative transition, which did not pursue significant social or economic reform. The Tunisian case shows that historical legacies, such as consensus politics, can shape a transition as much as contingent, pragmatic decisions by political leaders.     

The Russian State in the Time of Putin

As Putin's second term ends, the tone of Western opinion toward the president has turned increasingly rancorous. Those who feel embittered by the emergence of semi-authoritarianism and crony capitalism out of the communist collapse might consider blaming the theory as well as the man. This article characterizes the post-communist Russian state and Putin's legacy as state builder. Drawing on the Russian studies literature, the article looks at the underlying mechanisms that have long shaped state—society relations in Russia. Using the concept of power resources as an analytical tool, the article attempts to illuminate these mechanisms and, in so doing, examines what is new and what is familiar in the post-communist Russian state.     

POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Public opinion suggests that political corruption is entrenchedin South Africa. Comparative experience does not indicate thatthe historical South African political environment was especiallylikely to nurture a venal bureaucracy; as a fairly industrializedand extremely coercive state the apartheid order may have beenless susceptible to many of the forms of political corruptionanalysts have associated with other post-colonial developingcountries. Democratization has made government less secret,inhibiting corruption in certain domains but through extendinggovernment's activities opening up possibilities for abuse inothers. Today's authorities argue that the present extent ofcorruption is largely inherited and indeed certain governmentdepartments, notably those concerned with security and the homelands,as well as the autonomous homeland administrations themselves,had a history of routine official misbehaviour. After describingthe distribution and nature of corruption in South African publicadministration this article concludes that a substantial proportionof modern corruption occurs in regional administrations andcertainly embodies a legacy from the homeland civil services.A major source of financial misappropriation in the old centralgovernment, secret defence procurement, no longer exists butcorruption is stimulated by new official practices and freshdemands imposed upon the bureaucracy including discriminatorytendering, political solidarity, and the expansion of citizenentitlements. Though much contemporary corruption is inheritedfrom the past, the simultaneous democratization and restructuringof the South African state makes it very vulnerable to new formsof abuse in different locations.     

Russian Archival Sources for the Study of the Iranian Communist Party: The Pre-Tudeh Years, 1917-1942

In recent decades, the field of history of Communism in Iran has been enriched by a number of studies that deal with different aspects of the subject. Still some core aspects, such as the role of the Comintern in the Iranian Communist movement, remain largely understudied. This could be partly explained by the inaccessibility of archival documents during the Soviet era. Yet, despite the opening of many former Soviet archives after 1991, access to certain archives still presents great difficulties. In the framework of a research conducted in Russian archives, an inventory has been located in the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (Rossiiskii Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Sotsial'no-Politicheskoi Istorii / RGASPI) in Moscow. The inventory originates from the Comintern’s archive and consists of a large number of files and documents in various languages (primarily Russian, but also Persian and Azerbaijani) relevant to Communist activities in Iran. Given the importance of this inventory to the study of Communism in Iran, Iran-USSR relations and the extent of Soviet involvement in Iran in the late Qajar and early Pahlavi periods, we decided to translate and annotate it and to provide an introductory discussion of the highlights of Communist activity in Iran between the years 1917 and 1942.     

Undermining the Rule of Law: Democratization and the Dark Side of Police Reform in Mexico

This article asks whether democratization, under certain historical conditions, may relate to the deteriorating rule of law. Focusing on Mexico City, where police corruption is significant, this study argues that the institutionalized legacies of police power inherited from Mexico's one-party system have severely constrained its newly democratic state's efforts to reform the police. Mexico's democratic transition has created an environment of partisan competition that, combined with decentralization of the state and fragmentation of its coercive and administrative apparatus, exacerbates intrastate and bureaucratic conflicts. These factors prevent the government from reforming the police sufficiently to guarantee public security and earn citizen trust, even as the same factors reduce capacity, legitimacy, and citizen confidence in both the police and the democratically elected state. This article suggests that when democracy serves to undermine rather than strengthen the rule of law, more democracy can actually diminish democracy and its quality.     

Deconstructing the myth of the Tatar Yoke

Analysing and comparing the various conventional and revisionist narratives on what is known as the ‘Tatar Yoke’, this article aims to show that Western historiography has long been critical of the dominant negative view on the Tatar–Mongol rule over Russian principalities and that in Russia we find similar revisions in history – with some exceptions – only in post-Soviet times. This article aims to demonstrate how the revisionist views on the Tatar–Mongol rule contributed to the political and cultural transformation of contemporary Russia. In the part which analyses the revisionist discourse in Russia the emphasis lies on the new Tatar narrative. For Tatars the new interpretation of the Tatar–Mongol rule is of outstanding importance because it functions as a means to enhance Tatar national pride, and it contributes to Tatarstan's sovereignty project.     

Notes and news

Russia and Asia have an ambiguous relationship. More than half of Russia is geographically in Asia and much of its history, too. Peter the Great switched Russia's main focus to Europe. But by the middle of the 19^th century the “Slavophiles” were contesting that “Westernising” view as the Russian Empire expanded. After World War II, the USSR played an important ideological role in Asia, until the failure of the invasion of Afghanistan. The ensuing collapse of the USSR resulted in a smaller, much more “European” Russia, which the West was nonetheless not eager to embrace. Today, the dynamic economies of Asia offer opportunities, not least as a market for Russia's energy exports. But the legacy of Peter the Great lives on.     

Perviy Kanal's Trotsky and the “Atlanticisation” of Leon Trotsky's Legacy*

Trotsky, an eight-part miniseries made in 2017 for the centenary of the Russian Revolution, has recently been made available on Netflix for global audiences. This article analyses Trotsky through the theoretical lens of neo-Eurasianism, especially as developed by the political theorist Aleksandr Dugin. Dugin's philosophy posits a civilisational divide between the “Atlantic” values of secularism, open markets, cosmopolitanism and sexual profligacy represented by the Anglo-Atlantic cultural sphere, and the “Eurasian” values of authoritarianism, cultural conservatism and religious nationalism present in a revived Russia. I argue that Trotsky's interpretation of Leon Trotsky's legacy reflects the popularisation of Dugin's neo-Eurasianist political philosophy in Russia. The article covers some of the key historical events depicted in Trotsky, discussing their accuracy with reference to existing academic biographies of Leon Trotsky. I then discuss the series’ apparent fixation on the Jewish heritage of Trotsky (who was born Lev Bronstein), which has been the focus of much of the media coverage of the series, before addressing the fraught place that Trotsky occupies in Russian historical memory. I then move on to a discussion of the political philosophy of neo-Eurasianism and its relevance and application to the political climate of modern Russia. Finally, I consider what Dugin has said about Trotsky himself. Despite (or perhaps because of) its distortions of history, the series serves as a fascinating reflection of the values and political climate of modern Russia.     

从2018年地方选举看俄罗斯左翼政党发展态势

俄罗斯地方选举的结果往往能够反映出俄罗斯的政治社会形势、中央地方关系的变化情况以及精英的流动和发展状况,对国家杜马选举甚至俄罗斯总统选举都有一定的影响。2018年俄地方选举呈现出不同以往的特点,普京支持的“统一俄罗斯”党不仅失去多个地区的领导权,在地区立法机构的席位也大幅缩水。相比之下,俄罗斯联邦共产党则取得了不错的竞选成绩,在所有参选地区的得票率都有所提升,大幅提高了在地区立法机构中的席位占比。但是由于政治当局的打压、左翼政党内部的分裂和俄罗斯联邦共产党自身的发展局限,俄罗斯左翼政党在短期内依然无法与强大的政权党抗衡。不断进行理论创新、加强党的自身建设、联合其他左翼政党和爱国力量,才是俄罗斯左翼政党复兴的长远之计。     

The Russian Dimension of Baltic Maritime Governance

This paper seeks to reconstruct the development of Baltic maritime governance by filling in the gap in the systematic study of Russian maritime policy. In a review of historical, administrative, economic, and political facets of Russian maritime policy, the paper identifies the logic of “greatpowerness” underpinned by the category of “national interest” as its main driver. In this overall logic, cooperation with the EU in maritime affairs is a part of larger Russia’s EU politics. Thus, Baltic maritime governance depends on the ability of the EU and Russia to maintain constructive relations beyond the scope of the maritime domain.     

中俄关系史上的五条路

中俄关系史上存在五条路:丝绸之路、毛皮之路、茶叶之路、西伯利亚大铁路-中东路、中苏生命交通线。这五条路如同河流,流淌在中俄两国之间,将不同时空背景下的中俄(苏)两国串联在一起,不但关联着中俄两国的国家发展战略,而且关联着中俄两大民族、国家关系的发展战略。基于近代中国不平等条约体系,尽管有些路在某种程度上损害了中国的国家利益,对中俄关系的发展产生了一些消极作用,但整体而言,这五条路客观上分别从政治层面、经济层面、文化交流层面对中俄两国的发展战略以及两国关系的发展产生了较大的积极影响,为当下构建新时代中俄全面战略协作伙伴关系格局、顺利实践有利于全人类发展的"一带一路"倡议、构建人类命运共同体奠定了深厚的历史基础。     

Can the poor fight back? A multilevel analysis of corruption,poverty and collective demand for accountability in Africa

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the effects of the perceptions of corruption and personal experience of bribery on the propensity for ordinary Africans to support collective action-based anti-corruption tactics. It also evaluates how poverty shapes the association between corruption and support for collective civic action against corruption. The paper bases its findings on the multilevel level regression analysis of public opinion data from 35 African countries. The results show that an increase in experience of paying bribes increases poor people’s preference for anti-corruption tactics based on collective action. Furthermore, individuals who perceive corruption to be widespread are significantly more likely to support collective action as their country’s poverty level rises. These findings strongly challenge the view recently expressed in some of the literature that high levels of corruption erode the willingness of especially poor Africans to bring corruption under control.     

Abraham Kuyper: Calvinist Anti‐Revolutionary Politician and Political Thinker

The figure of Abraham Kuyper looms large over the political and social landscape of nineteenth and twentieth century Holland. He held significant posts in government, education, and the church. His social theory impacted Dutch society for much of the twentieth century. His influence on both continental and American Christian political thought is substantial. And yet, Kuyper's legacy is largely understated, and his political thought unknown in many corners of the scholarly world, including Australia. This article seeks to address this by surveying some of the major aspects of Kuyper's political thought while placing him in his historical setting. By doing so, I will show that Abraham Kuyper is a transitory figure in political history, occupying an important place in the development of the relationship between religion and the modern state.     

从一国社会主义到中国改革开放

马克思主义创始人考察了人类社会发展的历史,论证了资本主义发达的高度将是社会主义的基础,因而设想,社会主义将会在英、法、德、美等先进资本主义国家最先建立。历史的发展和革命运动的实际却是尚未完成民主主义革命任务、相对落后的俄国,率先建立了社会主义国家。这样,第一次世界大战催生的俄国社会发展顺序的颠倒,就把世界社会主义运动聚焦到怎样建设社会主义国家。斯大林体制的一国社会主义,是特定时代条件下,斯大林将马克思主义应用于俄国实际所建立的社会主义。斯大林宣布苏联已建成完全的社会主义社会,其实只是完成了民主主义革命遗留的历史任务。完成这一历史任务成为斯大林体制的历史负荷。第二次世界大战后建立的社会主义国家,基本上也是民主主义革命任务尚未完成的相对落后的国家。历史的共性是斯大林体制被当作社会主义共同模式的时代条件。世界各社会主义国家共有的、越"左"越革命的幼稚病,是小生产占优势国家背负的、改革斯大林体制的沉重历史包袱。中国改革开放,建设中国特色社会主义,终于为相对落后国家在完成民主主义革命遗留历史任务之后,搞清楚什么是社会主义,从而开创了建设社会主义国家的新时代。