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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"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.
Posted by La Russophobe![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.robertamsterdam.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 17, 2008 6:50 PM
Posted on January 17, 2008 18:50
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.
Posted by James![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.robertamsterdam.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 17, 2008 7:52 PM
Posted on January 17, 2008 19:52
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.
Posted by La Russophobe![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.robertamsterdam.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 17, 2008 8:35 PM
Posted on January 17, 2008 20:35
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?
Posted by Nxx![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.robertamsterdam.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 18, 2008 3:21 PM
Posted on January 18, 2008 15:21