Syllabus
Course outline 1. Introduction. Soviet Union as a “Empire of Nations». Russia after 1991. Russia as a «nationalizing state».
Literature:
Hirsch, Francine. "Empire of nations." In Empire of Nations. Cornell University Press, 2014
Brubaker, Rogers. "Nationalizing states revisited: projects and processes of nationalization in post-Soviet states." In Nationalism, ethnicity and boundaries, pp. 177-203. Routledge, 2014.
Starodubtsev, Andrey. "Tertius Gaudens: What is wrong with Russian federalism?." In Federalism and Regional Policy in Contemporary Russia, pp. 20-60. Routledge, 2018. 2 Russia center-periphery relations in 90th. Russian constitution 1993. Chechnya, Yakutia and Tatarstan in struggle of a new federal agreement.
Literature:
Hirsch, Francine. "Empire of nations." In Empire of Nations. Cornell University Press, 2014.
Halbach, Uwe. "Chechnya's status within the Russian Federation: Ramzan Kadyrov's private state and Vladimir Putin's federal" Power Vertical"." (2018): 32.
Cashaback, David. "Collaborative or hegemonic? Tatarstan and conflicting visions of federalism in Putin’s Russia." In Politics in the Russian Regions, pp. 78-107. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2007.
Lipman, Maria, and Nikolay Petrov, eds. Russia 2025: Scenarios for the Russian future. Springer, 2013.
Nicholson, Martin. "Characterising centre-periphery relations in the Yeltsin era." Russian Regions and Regionalism (2003): 3-18. 3. Regional elites and regional development in Russia. Business and regional politics.
Gel’man, Vladimir, and Anton Steen. "Elites and democratic development in Russia: An introduction." In Elites and democratic development in Russia, pp. 13-22. Routledge, 2003.
Kusznir, Julia. "Economic actors in Russian regional politics: The example of the oil industry." In Politics in the Russian Regions, pp. 161-187. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2007.
Kirkow, P. and Hanson, P., 1994. The potential for autonomous regional development in Russia: The case of Primorskiy Kray. Post-Soviet Geography, 35(2), pp.63-88. 4. Authoritarianism, federalism, and Russian regions in 2000th. Rising of electoral authoritarianism and resistance of regional elites. Reconstruction of political system and elimination of regional peculiarities.
Literature
Gel'man, Vladimir. "The rise and decline of electoral authoritarianism in Russia." Demokratizatsiya 22, no. 4 (2014).
Saikkonen, Inga A-L. "Variation in subnational electoral authoritarianism: evidence from the Russian Federation." Democratization 23, no. 3 (2016): 437-458.
Golosov, Grigorii V. "The regional roots of electoral authoritarianism in Russia." Europe-Asia Studies 63, no. 4 (2011): 623-639.
Smyth, Regina, and Rostislav Turovsky. "Legitimising victories: Electoral authoritarian control in Russia’s gubernatorial elections." Europe-Asia Studies 70, no. 2 (2018): 182-201.
Kropp, S., 2019. The ambivalence of federalism and democracy: The challenging case of authoritarianism—With evidence from the Russian case. In Configurations, dynamics and mechanisms of multilevel governance (pp. 213-229). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. 5. Political parties, regional elections, and regional elites
Literature
Ross, Cameron. "Regional elections and electoral authoritarianism in Russia." In Russia's Authoritarian Elections, pp. 119-140. Routledge, 2014.
Alexander, Kynev. "Party politics in the Russian regions: Competition of interest groups under the guise of parties." In The politics of sub-national authoritarianism in Russia, pp. 135-150. Routledge, 2016. 6. Dissents, protests and resistance in Russian regions.
Literature
Semenov, Andrey, Olesya Lobanova, and Margarita Zavadskaya. "When do political parties join protests? A comparative analysis of party involvement in “for fair elections” movement." East European Politics 32, no. 1 (2016): 81-104.
Dollbaum, Jan Matti, Andrey Semenov, and Elena Sirotkina. "A top-down movement with grass-roots effects? Alexei Navalny’s electoral campaign." Social Movement Studies 17, no. 5 (2018): 618-625.
Kynev, Alexander. "Political parties and parliament." In Russia, pp. 87-96. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2018 7. Local and municipal government in Russian regions (Guest lecture-TBC)
Literature
Gilev, Aleksei, and Daria Dimke. "‘No Time for Quality’: Mechanisms of Local Governance in Russia." Europe-Asia Studies 73, no. 6 (2021): 1060-1079.
Gilev, A. V., and I. K. Shevtsova. "Foundation of “Vertical”: Elections and Distribution of Inter-Governmental Transfers at Local Level cases of Novgorod Oblast and Perm Krai." Анализ· Хроника· Прогноз (2019): 163. 8. Civil society in Russian regions.
Literature:
Javeline, Debra, and Sarah Lindemann-Komarova. "A balanced assessment of Russian civil society." Journal of International Affairs 63, no. 2 (2010): 171-188.
Sundstrom, Lisa McIntosh. Funding civil society: Foreign assistance and NGO development in Russia. Stanford University Press, 2006.
Brechenmacher, S., 2017. Civil society under assault: Repression and responses in Russia, Egypt, and Ethiopia (Vol. 18). Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 9 Management of the ethnic diversity in Russian regions.
Literature:
Harzl, Benedikt, and Oleh Protsyk, eds. Managing ethnic diversity in Russia. Routledge, 2013.
Osipov, Alexander. "Implementation unwanted? Symbolic vs. instrumental policies in the Russian management of ethnic diversity." Perspectives on European Politics and Society 13, no. 4 (2012): 425-442.
Panov, Petr. "In search of inter-ethnic balance: ethnic composition and informal power-sharing in Russian national republics." European Politics and Society 17, no. 3 (2016): 353-372.
Prina, Federica. National minorities in Putin's Russia: diversity and assimilation. Routledge, 2015. 10. Religion and politics in Russian regions.
Literature
Köllner, Tobias. Religion and politics in contemporary Russia: Beyond the binary of power and authority. Routledge, 2020.
Köllner, Tobias. "Patriotism, Orthodox religion and education: empirical findings from contemporary Russia." Religion, State & Society 44, no. 4 (2016): 366-386. 11. Russian regions after 24.02.2022. War and Russian regions.
Literature:
James Hughes, “From Federalisation to Recentralisation,” in Stephen White, Alex Pravda, Zvi Gitelman, eds., Developments in Russian Politics 5, Palgrave, pp.128-46.
Darrell Slider, “Politics in the Regions,” in Stephen White, Alex Pravda, Zvi Gitelman, eds., Developments in Russian Politics 5, Palgrave, pp.147-68.
Annotation
Russia's political development after the collapse of the Soviet Union is most often described through the political and socio-cultural development of the center, Moscow. Researchers and analysts often overlook Russia's great cultural, and social diversity, which undoubtedly affects political development.
Russia continues to be a multinational federation under the control of an entrenched authoritarian regime that aspires to unitarity, and this trend undoubtedly affects the political development of Russia's regions. The course will provide students with an understanding of the political development of Russian regions as part of Russia's overall political development, with a special focus on the role of parties, municipal and local government, and civil society in this process.