Decrees,Laws, and Inter-Branch Relations in the Russian Federation

A UK-based political scientist presents a systematic analysis of the basic philosophical arguments and intellectual origins of fundamental conservative thought in Russia. Positing that fundamental conservatism seeks to displace interpretations of Western modernity in Russia with a culturally specific Russian version, she then probes more deeply into the methods and tasks of fundamental conservatism, before examining its main theoretical arguments. The fact that such thinking is increasingly prominent in Russia, including within political circles, is noted as a basis for the need to better understand it as a search for new forms of rationality and new forms of citizenship rooted in the Russian sociohistoric context.     

Between crises and sanctions: economic policy of the Russian Federation

This paper examines the root causes and features of crises of the Russian economy in 2014–2015 as a combination of structural and institutional problems, as well as cyclical and external shocks. The demand-side model of economic growth based on massive windfall revenue from oil and gas exports from the 2000s is now exhausted, and the country needs to shift to a new, supply-side model of growth. Mobilization and liberalization are discussed as two key economic policy alternatives. The analysis includes historical retrospection, which provides some important lessons from economic developments in the twentieth century: the Great Depression and the period of stagflation, the Soviet industrialization debate and perestroika, and the New Economic Policy in the USSR and the contemporary modernization of China. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of economic growth acceleration in present-day Russia. They include macroeconomic stabilization, structural and institutional reforms based on liberalization of economic activity, and guarantees of property rights.     

Lawmaking and Decree Making in the Russian Federation: Time,Space, and Rules in Russian National Policymaking

Russia's 1993 constitution created a hybrid presidential-parliamentary system in which the president has the power to initiate and veto legislation and to issue normative decrees. Using a comprehensive examination of laws and decrees promulgated in 1994-2004, three political scientists identify key influences on the use of lawmaking and decree-making powers by the president and parliament: constitutional constraints on the use of decree-making power, temporal considerations, and the effect of change in the policy distance between the president and the Duma. The interplay of these forces is illustrated in a case study of the use of law and decree in setting policy on land ownership.     

The First Year of Federation

This is the text of an address given by Sir Gilbert Rennie beforethe Royal African Society and the Royal Empire Society on October7, with Sir Miles Thomas, D.F.C., in the chair. Sir Gilbertis High Commissioner for the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasalandin London. He was Governor of Northern Rhodesia from 1947 tothe time of his appointment as Federal High Commissioner onApril 1, 1954. Sir Gilbert was Chief Secretary in Kenya from1939 to 1947. He held the post of Financial Secretary for theGold Coast before that. He served in the Ceylon Civil Servicesfrom 1920 to 1937, when he took up his appointment on the GoldCoast.     

Russian Constitutional Crisis: Law and Politics Under Yel'tsin

This article is a foray into the understudied issue of environmental protest politics in Central Asia. Specifically, it uses Kyrgyzstan as a case study to test the argument that environmental concerns mobilized people to engage in protest and in ways different from other kinds of protest. This essay presents the first systematic study of public opinion about the environment in Kyrgyzstan. It includes results from a 2009 nationwide survey, over 100 expert and elite interviews, and newspaper content analysis. Furthermore, it spatially analyzes these results to identify geographical variation in public perception and political event occurrence patterns. Protest engagement is a complex process determined by the interaction of several factors, and is not explained solely by affluence, rationality, or grievances. Eco-mobilization – collective political action about the environment – represents a class of protest events that offers a different view into mass discontent in the former Soviet Union and neo-patrimonial societies. The study finds that these political actions about the environment are not necessarily elite driven; there is a basic foundation of national concern and salience of these issues, and demonstrated environmental beliefs do help to explain protest behavior.     

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.     

The Effects of German Unification on the Federal Chancellor's Decision-Making

The purchase of Germany's Mannesmann AG by Britain's telecommunications holding company Vodafone in spring 2000 represented the first major cross-border hostile takeover in German corporate history. As spectacle, the story surrounding the fall of one of Germany's grandest industrial giants lays bare the underlying themes shaping the country's national discourse over how to build a new national consensus on the function of economic activity for the state, for society, and for the German citizen. As such, the Mannesmann-Vodafone saga contains a clear caesura between the Old and the New Economy in Germany. Of course the question remains which values and institutions do the Germans want to carry over from the old world into the new. And there the line between past and present becomes distinctly less discernible.     

从《农用土地流通法》看俄罗斯土地改革

俄罗斯《农用土地流通法》的颁布为俄罗斯农业用地的自由流通和买卖提供了法律基础,对于俄罗斯以私有化和市场化为内容的土地改革,进而对俄罗斯的现代化道路、制度选择都将产生积极影响。但《农用土地流通法》作为多方妥协的产物,它在若干重要方面并未反映土地改革倡导的意愿,从而使其重要性受到质疑。俄罗斯社会目前不利于土地改革的政治经济环境及前现代性政治文化也使得《农用土地流通法》的作用受到抑制。     

朝鲜半岛的统一与中国

19世纪下半叶始,随着中国的衰落和东亚朝贡国家体系的瓦解,朝鲜半岛成为列强争夺的目标,国际政治的矛盾和斗争引发了半岛内部的政治分化.在内外因素相互作用下,朝鲜半岛终致分裂.冷战结束后,朝鲜半岛的地缘政治战略意义有所降低,出现半岛问题半岛化趋势;而中国的和平崛起将为朝鲜半岛重新统一提供良好的外部环境.     

俄罗斯权威主义的复兴

八十年代末苏联掀起民主主义热潮,叶利钦借助于这个热潮走向权力顶峰。然而,叶利钦时代开始后,严酷的社会、经济形势促使人们加强对俄罗斯变革的反思,重新寻找出路。社会舆论的新取向和宪法确定的国家体制为新时代的俄罗斯权威主义开辟了道路。俄罗斯的权威主义复兴及其民众政治心态的转化引起国际社会普遍关注。本文回顾这一转化过程,分析其内在原因和俄罗斯权威主义的一些特点。     

社会转型时期俄罗斯民族主义产生的根源

俄罗斯在社会转型过程中爆发的民族主义浪潮有其深刻的民族思想、社会背景、民族性格和社会基础。“莫斯科即第三罗马”观念、“斯拉夫主义”和“欧亚主义”是其产生的思想渊源;解体造成的国力衰退和来自西方的压力是引爆的直接导火线;俄罗斯民族性格中的两重性、矛盾性和非理性的特征是它的民族性格根源;“新俄罗斯人”、知识分子、军人和军工集团是它的社会基础。     

The Russian Dance with Democracy

An American political scientist investigates whether, and how, the political and economic values of ordinary Russians have changed. The study is based on a three-wave panel survey of a representative national sample of Russians, conducted between 1996 and 2000. The article considers the degree to which democratic commitments have solidified over the last half of the decade. The article also tests the conventional wisdom that democratic values are dependent upon perceptions of a successful economy.