Democracy In Russia Research Paper

There has been much discussion and debate over whether Russia has truly and sufficiently transitioned into a democratic state. My notion of democracy is a system that includes free-markets, free-elections and has significant amounts of political and economic competition. Looking at Russia it is clear that none of these factors are full present. Although Russia has transition significantly form a communist regime, they still remain by definition a ‘state-managed’ democracy. As for the other Soviet successor states democratization has been achieved in some instances and has failed to be achieved in many others. In the case of the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), they have all had great success with democratization. All 3 countries …show more content…
A system of high equality will mean there is lesser likelihood of conflict between the autocrat and the people. A perfect example of this would be the country of Malaysia. Malaysia’s government is structured as a spurious democracy; in reality Malaysia is primarily a autocratic state. Nevertheless Malaysia maintains a successful autocracy because they maintain a high level of income equality, and lack of corruption. Authoritarian systems are likely to fail in nations in which income inequality is high and/or corruption persists. I believe both theses statements can do a certain degree hold true in today’s Russian society. In terms of income inequality it is not high in terms of the average citizen to another average citizen, however since the times of Kruschev Russia has maintained a pseudo-oligarchical society. The oligarchy of wealth in modern day Russia can be seen by looking a the natural resource industry. “ The Soviet economy had been highly monopolistic, with single industries or plants producing a product. Seventy-seven percent of products were made by a single enterprise. Industries were run by state managers who were unwilling to operate in conformity with the rules of the market” (Suny 519). Not only does this quote illustrate that modern day Russia is not a real democracy it also shows the connection natural resources and corruption have. The lack of diversity in the economy is caused by the state-managed market, which in turn invests most of its capital into the resource industry, in which government officials already have a stake. Acquiring this wealth through natural resources essentially allows the government to financial repress the rest of the population. Looking at the current state of Russia it is clear that there is a system the falls in a gray are between democracy and autocracy. I believe for the sake of