What is unique about Russian geography
Geographically, Russia is the largest country in the world, encompassing many different cultures and climates.The country spans eleven time zones and is located between Europe, the Islamic World, and Asia. Most of its population is concentrated in both th
Describe Marxism and explain how Marxism-Leninism (Soviet-style communism) is different, including the role of vanguardism and democratic centralism.
Marxism is the belief created by Karl Marx in the Communist Manifesto (1848) that saw capitalism as an economic system that exploited workers and increased the gap between the rich and the poor, and the situation in capitalist countries would become so ba
Explain the role of the Communist Party starting with Stalin, including nomenklatura, the Central Committee, the Politburo and the General Secretary.
Under Stalin the Communist Party was placed at the center of control. Stalin allowed no other political parties to compete, and leaders where identified through nomenklatura, the process of filling influential jobs in the state, society, or economy with p
Describe the role of collectivization and 5 year plans in the Soviet Union
. Collectivization was the process in which Stalin took land of small private farms and created state run "collective farms". Private land ownership was abolished and these farms were expected to feed workers in the cities who contributed to Industrializa
Describe Stalinism and identify attempts to "de-Stalinize.
Stalinism is the two pronged program of collectivization and industrialization, carried out by central planning, and executed with force and brutality. Nikita Krushchev attempted "de-Stalinization", a process that brought about reforms such as loosening t
Explain goals of Gorbachev's policies, including glasnost and perestroika and evaluate their success/failure.
Through Gorbachev's policies, he attempted to save the country from economic disaster, and was open to western-style reforms. His program was three pronged, beginning with Glasnost, which allowed for more open discussion of political, social, and economic
Describe the events that led to the end of the USSR and the creation of the Russian Federation.
In August 1991, "conservatives"(who wanted to abandon Gorbachev's reforms), high ranking Communist Party and Government officials led a coup d'etat tried to remove Gorbachev from office. The coup failed when political protests broke out, and military lead
Explain the policies of Yeltsin, including Shock Therapy, and describe the effects of these policies.
Under Yeltsin the Constitution of 1993 was put into place, and the country underwent Shock Therapy, which was an immediate market economy. The economy did not immediately respond, and Oligarchs took over as Yeltsin's constant sickness and alcoholism cause
Analyze the Russian Constitution of 1993. Are there any parts of the constitution that have not been "upheld" under Putin
Putin has significantly retreated from the commitments that Yeltsin made to the establishment of democracy. The fact that he honored the Constitution of 1993 by stepping down as president at the end of his term is countered by his remaining on as prime mi
Explain why Russia is considered to be an illiberal democracy.
The constitution of 1993 sets the government up to have democratic structures, therefore there are some elements of a democracy but it does not have all the practices that a substantive democracy has especially because it has a history of authoritarianism
Explain how Asymmetric Federalism differs from Federalism and why Russia has this form of federalism.
In Russia there is asymmetric federalism, in which some regions (85 in total, 21 are ethnically non Russian by majority) are much stronger than others, so power is devolved unequally across the country. In federalism, power is divided between the central
Describe how Putin has weakened regional authority and has centralized power.
Putin weakened regional authority and has centralized power through man actions, such as (1) military force on Chechnya (2) Creation of Super districts (power vertical: recentralization of power in the Kremlin) , in which seven new federal districts were
Define Presidential/Parliamentary system (Hybrid).
System that borrows aspects from both Presidential and Parliamentary Systems
What features does it have in common with a presidential system and A parliamentary system
Presidential system similarities: there is a president that's directly elected on a fixed election cycle, the president may veto Duma legislation, and the president may be impeached. It is similar to a Parliamentary government because the Prime Minister i
Identify the current head of state and head of government in Russia. What are their titles
Head of State is the President, which is Vladimir Putin. The Head of Government is the Prime Minister, which is Dmitri Medvedev.
How is the president elected, what is 2nd round voting, and how many years is a president's term / Term limits
The President is directly elected for a six year term, with a limit for two terms. The Second Round voting system is used in Russia, in which a voter places a ballot for a single candidate, but if no candidates receive a majority, those candidates who do
Describe the powers of the president in Russia. Identify any checks on the president's power.
The President has the power to appoint the prime minister and cabinet, issue decrees that have the force of the law, and can dissolve the Duma. The President can also call a state of emergency or referendum, impose martial law, or suspend actions of other
Explain the changes Putin has made to further strengthen the power of the president.
Same as how Putin centralized power
How is the prime minister chosen, What are the PM's powers, and Identify any checks on the PM's powers (including vote of no confidence).
The Prime Minister (whose official title is the Chairman of Russia) is nominated by the President but must be approved by Duma. But, if they reject the appointment three times, the President may dissolve the Duma. The PM is in charge of the federal budget
Identify the type of legislature found in Russia.
Bicameral Legislature
Identify the upper house. How are members selected and What is its role
The upper house is Federation Council, whose role is to represent the regions of the Russian Federation. Two members from each of the 85 subunits are Councilors, with one chosen by the governor of each region (who is appointed by Putin) and the other by t
Identify the lower house. How are members selected and What is its role
The lower house is the Duma, whose 450 deputies are elected through mixed representation (half FPTP, half PR) for five year terms. The Duma's powers include passing bills, approving budget, confirming presidential appointments. Its powers are limited thou
What is the legislature's relationship to the other branches
It is a weak check on executive power, explain the limited power of the Duma
Describe the role of the Judiciary.
The Constitution of 1993 attempted to build a judicial system that us not controlled by the executive through its creation of the Constitutional Court
What is the difference between the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Court
The Constitutional Court is comprised of 19 members who are appointed by the resident and approved by the Federation Council. They have the power of judicial review (can check the constitutionality of laws and other official actions of the government) but
What is the Judiciary's relationship to the other branches
Both courts have been actively involved in policy making, but their independence from the executive (which was a goal of the constitution) is questionable. One problem is that many prosecutors and attorneys were trained under the Soviet legal system, so t
Evaluate the extent of rule of law in Russia. What role does corruption play?
Rule of law: supersedes the actions and statements of individual rulers. Movement toward the rule of law continues to be blocked by corruption in state and society and by the political tradition of allowing the security police to operate autonomously. Dur
Describe the status of the military in Russia.
Very weak role of military. The armed force has no political power at all. They have increased in status with military victories in Chechnya and Ukraine. Supported by slavophiles. Their status has improved.
Describe elections in Russia.What type of electoral system is used in Russia for the State Duma. How has it changed in recent years?
Old rule allowed half of Duma seats to be elected by FPTP and others proportionally, which allowed many minor parties to capture Duma seats. In 2005, Putin changed to purely proportional system that eliminated candidates that were regionally popular. This
How is referenda initiated? How has referenda been used historically in Russia?
Is initiated by President Historically: Boris Yeltsin called for a referendum on his job performance, people supported his reforms and in referendum in favor of new constitution . There was a regional referendum held in Chechnya in 2003 to approve a const
Explain why political parties have been unstable in Russia.
There is no strong opposing political parties to dominating party. Russians put their party and electoral systems together almost overnight after the Revolution of 1991. many small, factional parties ran candidates in the first Duma election in 1993, 43 o
Identify the current type of party system in Russia.
Multi-party system though dominated by one party
Identify social cleavages in Russia.
The most important cleavage in the Federation of Russia is nationality. Most people are Russian but there are sizable amount of Tatars, Ukrainians, Armenians, Chuvashia, Bashkirs, Belorussians, and Moldavians. These cleavages are what makes Russia a feder
Explain key components of Russian political culture. What role has history played in shaping this culture?
There is a large mistrust of the government, as many people support deomcratic ideals but do not trust the government to carry them out. statism, or the idea that the state should have an active presence in the lives of its citizens, is also valued as a r
Analyze the ability of civil society to flourish in Russia. Identify obstacles.
Civil Society is organizations and associations outside of poltics, and their existence in Russia is extremely underdeveloped. Many are not involved in sports clubs, religous bodies or even believe they belong to a poltical party (1% do) While the USSR us
Analyze the role of Russian youth groups. Why were they created? What do critics say?
Russian Youth Groups such as Nashi were created by President Putin to build a following of loyal, patriotic young people and to defuse any youthful resistance. In this way they serve as a poltical arm of the government, receiving grants from the governmen
Describe current major public policy issues in Russia today. How do they reflect either fragmentation or integration/globalization?
What impact do they have on the economic development of Russia?
(1) Foreign policy: CIS (Commonwealth of Indepedent States composed of 9 former republics of USSR) is weak and divided by nationality. The Crisis in Ukraine: annexed Crimea (a pro-Russia region in Ukraine) after controversial elections and decisions of Pr
Explain the difference between civil liberties and political rights.
Describe how both have declined under Putin - give specific examples.
Based on the above, what type of regime does Russia currently have?
Civil Liberties involve the promotion of freedom within a society, which includes the right to free speech and assembly, while poltical rights refers to the promotion of equality. The two tend to overlap, but both have seemed to decline under Putin. For e