The Rutgers political science professor Alexander Motyl has an interesting but not subtle op/ed in the Kyiv Post today arguing not only that Russia is quickly drifting toward becoming a fascist state, but that there is little anyone can do about it. Containment is the only feasible policy response, he argues, and says that countries like France and Germany must urgently recognize that Russia today is not democratic, and that this authoritarian mass model could have a dangerous contagion effect in neighboring countries. Motyl also points out the weaknesses of fascism: “Leadership cults only work as long as the founding leaders are still vigorous. When supreme leaders falter — as they inevitably do — or leave the scene, successor elites engage in cutthroat competition to assume the mantle of authority. As they weaken the regime’s foundations and expose the system as brittle, the state’s image as a Leviathan worthy of official and popular veneration crumbles. The next two years will be especially difficult for Russia, as it copes with a genuinely post-Putin political system or with a seemingly post-Putin system still run by Putin. Humiliation is a weak foundation on which to build state and leader legitimacy. Although Russians currently want the reassuring guidance of a “vozhd” (chief), sooner or later they will cease feeling humiliated. When that happens, as it surely will (once their prosperity and exposure to the world and its blandishment increases), they will eventually abandon humiliation for more satisfactory forms of self-identification. ” I am yet to be convinced that rising prosperity is in any way tied to the emergence of stronger popular pro-democracy movements.
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8 Comments
“I am yet to be convinced that rising prosperity is in any way tied to the emergence of stronger popular pro-democracy movements.”Indeed so! Especially where Russia is concerned.And more important, where does anybody get the idea that the Kremlin would ALLOW prosperity to rise high enough to make citizens think independently and responsibly? Isn’t it much easier for the relatively weak Kremlin to wield dictatorial power over a sick, poor population rather than a wealthy, healthy one? Repressing and bleeding the mass population has been a key to Russian “governance” for time out of mind.
Actually I think it would be pretty hard to stay in power in Russia if the economy were tanking and people were going hungry again.Right now there’s definitely an element of complacency and political apathy among Russians.It would be nice and neat if Motyl was right, but I think we all know that Fukuyama’s neoliberal fantasy end of history hasn’t really occurred. Welcome to the new era of illiberal democracy or authoritarian capitalism – I don’t think anyone has settled on a new term for it.
JAMES:I think you’ve forgotten your recent Russian history. At the end of his term in office Yeltsin presided over an economic basket case and was even accused of genocide. Yet, when he told the people of Russia to elect his hand-picked successor Mr. Putin, what did they do? Rise up and throw off the shackles of his oppression?Not hardly.I put it to you that the economy IS tanking and people ARE going hungry. They are in fact DYING at an alarming rate, with a net population loss in the hundreds of thousands every year despite record immigration. Yet, there are not even viable opposition parties, much less changes of power. Just because there are a few well-off Russians sucking the nation’s lifeblood doesn’t mean the economy is doing well or the people are happy.
Why some people say about danger of fascism in Russia right now, when most fascist and nationalist movements in Russia disslolved, depressed or ceased activity? Why there were no such claims of fascism in 1990s when peple freely walked on streets with swastika, nazi organizations freely conducted congresses etc?
I’m Haedar F. Mohammed, from Iraq, I study in Russia, befor 2 week at 18:00 near Students Residence came the skinhead ” Fascists ” from the rear and beat-up on my head maybe 3 once by very big stick, and after this I fallen to the ground and them began with beat-up to my head and my abdomen,and this happening always and the stranger thing it’s the police was see me and not do any thing and not stoping and not came to me too, them came to me after 4 days after that,I look the police have cooperation with them,from the better not say to russia ” Great Russia” but must to be naming vulnerable Russia,very regrettable happen all thisHaedar F. Mohammed
There is bad news about George Herbert Walker Bush.What if basically all racial-minority people would subscribe to the interpretations that George Herbert Walker Bush committed monstrous, racist, hate crimes while he was the President of the United States?It will eventually come out: it is only a matter of time.Respectfully Submitted by Andrew Yu-Jen Wang, J.D. CandidateB.S., With the Highest Level of Academic Honors at Graduation, 1996Messiah College, Grantham, PALower Merion High School, Ardmore, PA, 1993(I can type 90 words per minute, and there are thousands of copies on the Internet indicating the content of this post. And there are at least hundreds of copies in very many countries around the world.)_________________“If only it were possible to ban invention that bottled up memories so they never got stale and faded.” Off the top of my head—it came from my Lower Merion High School yearbook.
Major thanks for the article.Really looking forward to read more. Fantastic.
A big thank you for your article.Much thanks again. Really Cool.