Russian authors about two decades of reforms, constitutional crisis and modernization

The article includes the review or some prominent researches devoted to the problems of evolution of political regime in Russia and published in last five years. The main subject of analysis – the reflections or Russian authors on the problems of the democratization in 1980–1990, collapse of USSR, evolution of the political and law institutes in Russian Federation. According to author of the article, Russian historians and philosophers have quite explained the reasons of the unfortunate results of the reforms, attempts of modernization. The pressing issue of the economic modernization of Russia is impeded by the political system of Russia which rejects all the attempts to modernize it. The existing contradiction has resulted from the process of the formation of market institutions and mechanisms under the conditions of absence of political culture of democracy. The interests of the political and bureaucratic elite are poorly compatible with democratic institutions. The political circles simulate democratic reforms by way of creating institutional simulacra. Russia’s political system is built on surrogates, including new laws and political parties, which create the illusion of shared power among the population. Nowadays, there is no need to justify and ground the recognition that no modernisation is possible in Russia without reforming its political system. It is recognized by some Russian scholars, analysts, and politicians. However, the paradox and dramatic character of the situation is that the issue of the modernization is not consistent with the structure of the Russian political system which, institutionally and procedurally, accords only with the regime concentrating all processes on the vertical of the executive authority and is, for the time being, successfully rejecting all attempts to modernize it.

About the author: Iliya Shablinsky – Doctor of Science in Law, Professor, Faculty of Law, National Research University – Higher School of Economics.

Citation: Shablinsky I. (2016) Rossiyskie avtory o dvukh desyatiletiyakh reform, konstitutsionnom krizise i modernizatsii [Russian authors about two decades of reforms, constitutional crisis and modernization]. Sravnitel'noe konstitutsionnoe obozrenie, no.5, pp.137–147. (In Russian).

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