Consildation Of Democracy In Russia

In order to better understand the different ways governments work in the word, as well as the diverse ways in which dissimilar cultures are governed, three measurements must be assessed. First, the inherited institutions of the specific country, meaning the type of governments it has been ruled by in it's past. Second, the social cleavages of the society and the role they play in conflict, specifically meaning the social divisions inside the country due to cultural, religious or economic disparities and divides. The third measure for assessment is the political culture of a country. Political culture is defined as the attitudes that people in a country feel towards authority, society, institutions and politics. One thing to keep in mind about these assessments is that they seem to depend on each other in many aspects. For example, the political culture of a country most likely originates from experiences with past inherited institutions, as well as the social cleavages that are a part of the society. It is the contention of this essay, however, that the political culture of a country largely dictates where it will go in the future. Without the support of the majority of the citizens in a country, the institutions will not succeed in governing them; even if the country isn't a democracy, the people will rise up against the government if they feel suppressed or that the institutions are not flourishing as governing bodies. This essay will focus on the transitional democracy in Russia and how the political culture of the people is allowing the government to move away from becoming a working democracy in practice instead of just in principle It is important to recognize that the Russian people have gotten used to and quite comfortable with a strong central government. While the decades of communism were hard on the Russian people, they enjoyed the stability of state controlled economy. The years which the people experienced without that control and stability were chaotic and unstable. To make the point blatantly and plainly, the Russian people seem to be very good at being told what to do. In light of policies implemented since 1998 by a more controlling party, elected by the Russian people, the most significant influence on the current problems facing the consolidation of democracy in Russia is the political culture of its citizens which stems from years and year of being controlled by a strong authoritative government.

The reason the Russian political culture has assumed the current state it is in, comes from the fact that before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the majority of the people hadn't experienced any other form of government besides communism. Communism was definitely a hard way to live socially and politically. However, the governments control over supply and demand and the entire economy in general created a dependence on said control for the Russian people. They became dependant on the government creating economic stability which was far away from the scary ups and downs and the vulnerability of a capitalist market. The Russian people have always had the government interfering in at least the economic sector of their lives and this control has become a sort of security blanket for them.

As stated above, the only experience with a free market that the Russian people have ever had was not good, to say the least. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the new government attempted to create a capitalistic democracy in Russia, the economy went down the drain. According to the text Introduction to Comparative Politics , "Four transitional processes were initiated simultaneously in the early 1990's: democratization, market reform, a redefinition of national identity and integration into the worlds economy" (Kessleman 367). Making all of these processes happen at once, made all of them more difficult for the government to implement, maintain and complete, especially the economic policies and reforms. The chaos, confusion and unpopular economic vulnerability that surrounded the people during the transitions made increased government control of the economy more and more attractive. Though, this chaos and confusion was not what put Russian political culture over the edge to eventually pursue powerful leadership. According to the text, this quick shift of political culture was instigated by the crash of the stock market in the late 90's. In August of 1998 Russia experienced the harsh reality of an uncontrolled economy when in one day, 90 percent of its stock market had lost its value (Kessleman 373). Government bonds were a joke, many banks were forced into bankruptcy or struggled to survive. The government at the time tried to counter act this by printing off more money, resulting in ridiculous inflation. The Ruble lost 2/3 of its value to the dollar; which in effect, decreased the supply of imported goods and many companies were forced to lay off a mass number of workers or close entirely (373). Some people, mainly the young, were able to survive in the new harsh economy, but the majority of people were left in the dust of the fast pace reform system, which most people knew nothing about. These short but substantial years of attempted democracy and capitalism made the Russian people distrust the failing democratic and bureaucratic institutions and lean towards a more attractive choice in a strong central government. Due to this distrust, the Russian people elected a strong leader who promised more stability.

In the aftermath of the economic crisis, the Russian people voted for more state control with their election of Vladimir Putin into the presidential office. Putin promised to ensure more economic stability via more government control. Putin was the Prime Minister before he was elected President, and was also a well known ex- KGB officer in Russia's soviet days. The Russian people making this decision to put a more authoritative leader in office, proves itself to be the real turn around point where Russia becomes thirsty for more governmental control. In the years following Putin's inauguration, Russia experienced increased growth economically, as Putin gained more and more power everyday. He established election reforms in 2000 which severely hinder the ability for balanced competition in the political arena. Putin also allowed the government to gain immense control of the media. Even with all the reforms made by Putin, and his clear goal to make a substantially more powerful government, he was re-elected for a second term in 2004 with a whopping 71 percent of the vote. Thus proving the overwhelming support he holds from the Russian public, along with internationally notorious support the people give him. This was most definitely due to the constant growth rate which averaged a 6 percent increase every year that Russian's experienced from Putin's leadership. From the previous