Реферат: Consolidation Of Democracy In PostSoviet Russia Essay

(Shevstova 65). Yeltsin has adeptly used these pathologies to create a system that Shevstova refers to as

?divide and conquer? (Shevstova 69).

So what are the dangers in Yeltsin?s brand of governing? There has been very little change in how things

are done under the Yeltsin regime versus the Gorbachev regime. The specific issues were addressed in the

previous section. Another important point to note is that there has been too much reliance on Yeltsin?s

personal prestige and charisma (Shevstova 64). Yeltsin operates outside of the nascent party system

because parties constrain leaders. He is not an institution builder but, as his policies have demonstrated,

he is a populist. His communist background has not made him adverse to resorting to extra-legal means

to achieving his goals. It is this procedural uncertainty, and reliance upon the ?man? and not the

?measures?, that create the greatest concern for the establishment of stable democracy.

The Crystal Ball

The problems that I have outlined in this paper do not bode well for the establishment of a stable

democracy in Russia for the near future. The literature on the subject contends that consolidated

democracy is not a likely option for Russia. Instead we are much more likely to see a ?unconsolidated?

democracy take hold in Russia.

Fish describes an unconsolidated democracy as a system that would include many of the basic elements of

democracy, such as elections and considerable civil and cultural freedoms (Fish 226). Yet we are unlikely

to see the establishment of durable and stable rules and institutions that are appropriate to their respective

social structures or accepted by their respective citizenries (Smitter 60). Because of the lack of any

credible alternatives to democracy, we are unlikely to see a regression back to authoritarianism. Yet if

appropriate reforms are not enacted, we are likely to see what is referred to as democracy by default

(Smitter 60). The basic rights of democracy will exist but ?regular, acceptable, and predictable

democratic patterns never quite crystallize? (Smitter 61). The 1993 Constitution excaberates this problem

by placing enormous power in the hands of the president, laying the groundwork for discretionary,

personal expressions of authority that contradict the needed objectives of broad based political

aggregation.

There has been growing disenchantment in Russia with the not only Yeltsin, the politician, but with the

institution of democracy itself. Public opinion show that most Russians evaluate democracy in negative

terms (Whitefield). This is the danger of having a politician also represent a movement. For a stable