Реферат: Consolidation Of Democracy In PostSoviet Russia Essay

Russia and the other successor states to the Soviet Union found themselves in a much more precarious

predicament. The state socialist regime left a legacy of corruption, protectionism, price distortions,

foreign indebtedness, inefficient public enterprises, trade imbalances, and fiscal instability (Smitter 67).

Combined with the simultaneous need for political reform, Russia faces a tall task indeed. The dubious

tradition of the Soviet era has led to an overdependence on foreign advise and models of capitalism.

Yet, it is clear that this may not be a wise path to follow. Much of the literature concerning post-

communist literature warns of Russia relying to closely to the Western model of capitalism. Jowitt warns

that Americans should temper their ?missionary zeal? in exporting an idealistic view of ?what we once

were? (Jowitt 7). The simultaneous difficulties of nation-building, marketization, and democratization

place the Soviet successor states in a unique and precarious situation.

Privatization in Russia did occur extraordinarily rapidly, with the idea being that getting productive assets

into private hands as fast as possible would make economic reform irreversible. This was arguably right –

there is indeed a large and powerful group that has a great deal to lose from any effort to re-nationalize

the economy. But this class is at the same time decidedly not interested in fair rules of market competition

and an open economy. Rather it wants the state to preserve its privileges, protect its markets, and allow it

to continue to reap the windfall gains of privatization. And neither does it seem to care much about

democracy.

At the same time, privatization has contributed greatly to the popular conviction that marketization has

been deeply unjust: state assets were distributed disproportionately to insiders, to people willing to skirt

the letter of the law, and in many cases to outright criminals. Official corruption and the lack of fair and

enforced laws and clearly-defined property rights, have only contributed to this perception. As a result,

while there is a growing middle class in Russia, it is smaller, less democratic in orientation, and less

politically influential than it might have been without the state socialist tradition.

The greatest misstep the Yeltsin regime took was moving forward with economic reform without

addressing the need for wholesale, political renovation. There is a serious quandary that results in

concurrent democratization and marketization. It derives from the basic difference between a government

that strives to distribute power and status relatively equally (democratization) and an economy that

distributes property and income relatively unequally (capitalism) (Smitter 67). This obstacle is magnified

in Russian democratization with the fusion between politics and economics. Shevtsova writes ?reformers