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TERRA ECONOMICUS

On reverse processes related to post-soviet Russia development

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 13 (no. 3),

The author makes an attempt to justify his hypothesis that Russia since the early 2000s demonstrates a quite typical for many countries undulating process of rise and fall of public interest to the different political models. In particular, there are periods of waning of interest in socialism, followed by a period of its temporary rehabilitation, restoring of interest in democracy, then a temporary retreat from it, and again short-lived interest to authoritarian forms of government. The paper focuses on the reversible fluctuations of Russian public opinion in 1990–2000s on values related to traditionalism and modernization, attitude toward the West and, particularly, ethnic identity, as the major interest of the author. This article demonstrates some features of ethno-national identity of residents of the Russian Federation (especially – of its ethnic majority) in relation to the evaluation of policies, emphasizing at the same time the typological similarity of trends of change and fluctuations of public opinion in Russia and in many other countries. Waves of ethnosociological vibrations are compared with the change in attitude of the Russians toward the ideas of socialism and to the neo-liberal political stereotypes, in perception of Russians. The author emphasizes that there is a universal wavelike process that has its own specifics in Russia, as in any other country, but there is no any «special way» interpreted by its ideologists as a mystical predetermination of the Russian authoritarianism.


Keywords: democracy; «reverse wave»; ascriptive identity; traditionalism; neopatrimonialism

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Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606