Contemporary Russian Politics

2017/2018

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

4

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of Political Science and International Affairs

Course type:

Compulsory course

When:

2 year, 4 module

Instructor

Gilev, Aleksey

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course revolves around four major issues in Russian politics: super-presidentialism, regionalisation, state weakness and weak political institutions, and its resource wealth. The tasks of the course are therefore covering these four components. The three former institutional characteristics are taken to be more stable and to produce stronger legacies traced back to the late Soviet times and the 1990s. The latter, being primarily the naughts' feature, enters analysis by the mid- term.

Learning Objectives

• The course aims at forming a coherent knowledge of the recent political developments in Russia through the lens of various conceptual and theoretical approaches

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Thinks critically and interprets the political experience based on the examples from Russian political history (personal and that of other persons), relates it to professional and social activities
• Retrieves, collects, processes and analyzes information related to Russian political development on various levels and relevant for achieving goals in the professional field
• Executes applied analysis of the political phenomena and political processes taking place in Russia - by using political science methods - and in support of practical decision making process
• Interprets the varying approaches to role of business in Russian politics
• Establishes prerequisites for protests and color revolutions in the post-soviet space
• Executes applied analysis of the political phenomena and political processes - by using political science methods - and in support of practical decision making process to trace the major developments in Russian politics in 1990-2010s
• Student is capable of reporting the results of the information retrieval and analysis, academic or applied research she/he has conducted
• Able to think critically and interpret the experience (personal and of other persons), relate to professional and social activities
• Student is capable of retrieving, collecting, processing and analyzing information relevant for achieving goals in the professional field
• Student is capable of executing applied analysis of the political phenomena and political processes

Course Contents

• Introduction. The institutionalist conceptual lens
• What is Russian politics made of? Presidentialism
• Parties, media and opposition
• What else is Russian politics made of? Federalism
• Corruption, bureaucracy and state- building
• Institutions and the rule of law in Russia. Law and Courts
• Business and State
• Color Revolutions in the PostSocialist countries and Political Protest in Russia
• Course recap: Societal, economic and political sources of regime resilience in Russia

Assessment Elements

• Work in class
  Every seminar starts with a brief overview of the subject by the instructor. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of the literature assigned for the class, with occasional team project presentations. The students' work in class during seminars amounts to 40% of the final grade. This mostly deals with the instructor's assessment of their reading.
• Reaction papers
  The other 20% of the grade come from two reaction papers students write covering the reading assignment for two classes of their choice (which they submit to the instructor after the first class where they get familiar with the course requirements and can ask some further questions to ascertain their points of interest for the course). The reaction paper is a 500 words long essay where a student reviews the literature assigned for the class, gives his/her opinion and some critiques on it. Reaction papers must be submitted not later than a day before the class (seminar) on the subject starts.
• colloquium
  Colloquium takes place in the middle of the course (beginning of the second term) where students are expected to react to any question(s) asked by the instructor on the assigned topic. Colloquium’s format differs from seminars because it does not imply discussion, rather a pure knowledge of the literature and resembles the oral mini-exam with brief and maximally precise answers. The colloquium’s subject is the matter of agreement between the instructor and students. Students must read all the literature assigned and be prepared to immediately respond to the question(s). Each correct response amounts to 5 points. Two full and correct (to the reasonable extent) responses amount to the maximum of 10 points (10%).
• exam
  The exam (30%) is a written answer to one of the broad questions covered in the course. The exam lasts two hours and can add up to the final grade as 30%.

Interim Assessment

• Interim assessment (4 module)
  0.143 * colloquium + 0.286 * Reaction papers + 0.571 * Work in class

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Fish, M. S. (2005). Democracy Derailed in Russia : The Failure of Open Politics. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=148155
• Shevtsova, L. (2010). Putin’s Russia (Vol. 2nd ed). Washington DC: Carnegie Endowment for Int’l Peace. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=551790

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Desai, P. (2006). Conversations on Russia: Reform from Yeltsin to Putin. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.b.oxp.obooks.9780195300611
• Golosov, G. V., & Tkacheva, T. (2018). Let My People Run. Problems of Post-Communism, 65(4), 243–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/10758216.2017.1351305
• Hale, H. E. (2006). Why Not Parties in Russia? : Democracy, Federalism, and the State. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=146164
• Ken Jowitt. (1983). Soviet Neotraditionalism: The political corruption of a Leninist regime. Europe-Asia Studies, (3), 275. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668138308411481
• Sakwa, R. (2002). Russian Politics and Society (Vol. 3rd ed). London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=73688
• Thomas Remington. (2008). Patronage and the Party of Power: President–Parliament Relations Under Vladimir Putin. Europe-Asia Studies, (6), 959. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130802161215
• Timothy Frye, John Reuter, & David Szakonyi. (2012). Political Machines at Work: Voter Mobilization and Electoral Subversion in the Workplace. HSE Working Papers. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsrep&AN=edsrep.p.hig.wpaper.08.ps.2012
• Vadim Volkov. (1999). Violent Entrepreneurship in Post-Communist Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, (5), 741. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668139998697
• Vladimir Gel’man. (2004). The unrule of law in the making: The politics of informal institution building in Russia. Europe-Asia Studies, (7), 1021. https://doi.org/10.1080/1465342042000294347