Abstract
How does the experience of centuries of authoritarian rule affect Russian political culture? How important is it that decisions have for most of her history been taken from above, by an extremely narrow circle of decision makers, without popular involvement or discussion of alternatives? That there has never been much law in Russia, only a system of non-laws, or rather laws which are only arbitrarily applied? That regimes have only rarely respected the most basic rights of the citizen?
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Notes
Typically taken to represent this viewpoint are Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime (London: Peregrine, 1976);
and Zbigniew Brzezinski, ‘Soviet Politics: From the Future to the Past’, in Paul Cocks, Robert V. Daniels and Nancy Whittier Heer (eds), The Dynamics of Soviet Politics (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1976), pp. 337–51.
See also Andrei Amalrik, Will the Soviet Union Survive Until 1984? (London: Allen Lane, 1970).
A formidable statement of the hypothesis is Brian Barry, Sociologists, Economists and Democracy (London: Macmillan, 1970);
also Mary McAuley, ‘Political Culture and Communist Politics: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back’, in Archie Brown (ed.), Political Culture and Communist Studies (London: Macmillan, 1984).
Leo Bogart, Silent Politics: Polls and the Awareness of Public Opinion (NY: John Wiley, 1972), p. 15.
A highly readable outline of such problems is George Gallup, The Sophisticated Poll Watcher’s Guide (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976).
See in particular Jeffrey W. Hahn, ‘Continuity and Change in Russian Political Culture’, British Journal of Political Science, 21, 4 (1991), pp. 393–421;
James L. Gibson and Raymond M. Duch, ‘Emerging Democratic Values in Soviet Political Culture’, in Arthur H. Miller, William M. Reisinger and Vicki L. Hesli (eds), Public Opinion and Regime Change: The New Politics of Post-Soviet Societies (Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1993), chapter 4.
See esp. Donna Bahry and Brian D. Silver, ‘Soviet Citizen Participation on the Eve of Democratization’, American Political Science Review, 84, 4 (1990), pp. 821–47.
See in particular Samuel H. Barnes and Max Kaase, Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies (Beverley Hills: Sage, 1979).
See, for example, Arthur H. Miller, William M. Reisinger and Vicki L. Hesli, ‘Public Support for New Political Institutions in Russia, the Ukraine and Lithuania’, Journal of Soviet Nationalities, 1, 4 (1990–91), pp. 98–9; Cynthia S. Kaplan, ‘New Forms of Political Participation’, in Miller et al.(eds), Public Opinion and Regime Change chapter 7.
See, for example, Nancy Bermeo, ‘Redemocratization and Transition Elections: A Comparison of Spain and Portugal’, Comparative Politics, 19 (1986–87), pp. 213–31.
Matthew Wyman, Stephen White, Bill Miller and Paul Heywood, ‘Public Opinion, Parties and Voters in the December 1993 Russian Elections’, Europe-Asia Studies, 47, 4 (1995) pp. 591–614.
Václav Havel, ‘The Post-Communist Nightmare’, New York Review of Books, 27 May 1993.
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© 1997 Matthew Wyman
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Wyman, M. (1997). Continuity and Change in Russian Political Culture. In: Public Opinion in Postcommunist Russia. Studies in Russian and East European History and Society. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373631_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373631_5
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