Debates on Russian statehood

Eurozine presents a debate from its partner Neprikosnovennij Zapas on Russian concepts of statehood and state formation that goes to the core of sociological and political attitudes to the state. Even further, it looks at the failure of Western and Russian political theory to develop an adequate discourse for the Russian model.

The first part of the debate by Axel Kaehne outlines two influential models of liberal statehood that have come out of Russia in the last decade and reconsiders the implications for Western political theory. In a reply-article, Alexander Akhiezer argues that the lack of a functioning civil society together with an – on the surface at least – strong, coercive state that has been unable to make its aims intelligible to the people, make it all but impossible to speak of liberal statehood with regard to Russia. Axel Kaehne in his counter-reply asks what the limits of a political-theoretical perspective are when compared to a sociological-cultural angle on Russia.

All articles available in English and Russian:
Axel Kaehne
Russian conceptions of statehood and western political theory (en) (ru)
In the first of a three-part-series debate, Axel Kaehne asks how concepts of liberal statehood can be defined with regard to Russia. And how do such concepts shift the parameters of Western political theory?

Alexander Akhiezer
How different are we? (en) (ru)
Akhiezer’s answer to Kaehne’s article Russian statehood and Western political theory looks at the sociocultural rifts that permeate Russian society and the implications for political theory.

Axel Kaehne
Reply to Akhiezer (en) (ru)
In this last part of the debate, Kaehne considers the societal schism between Russia and Europe.