Richard L. Brinkman and Georgy Bovt
Analyses and clarifies the concept of federalism outside such limitedparadigmatic boundaries and includes the relevant social and economicvariables. Applies a holistic and…
Abstract
Analyses and clarifies the concept of federalism outside such limited paradigmatic boundaries and includes the relevant social and economic variables. Applies a holistic and interdisciplinary methodology in the framework of the processes of general culture evolution to interrelate the social, the political and the economic. Compares the West European experiences and the US prototype, to that of the current movement towards an evolving Russian federation. Analyses the apparent positive and centripetal movement towards West European federalism, in the context of the European Union, juxtoposed to the centrifrugal forces evident in the collapse of the USSR. Analyses the current movement towards a Russian federation.
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Richard L. Brinkman and Georgy Bovt
Demonstrates the relevance of a stages methodology as a basis forunderstanding and analysing the evolutionary metamorphosis leading tothe current Russian malaise. Addresses the…
Abstract
Demonstrates the relevance of a stages methodology as a basis for understanding and analysing the evolutionary metamorphosis leading to the current Russian malaise. Addresses the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology, such as the unilinear fallacy, and analyses economic stagnation and decline in the context of the dynamics of culture evolution in the stage of modern economic growth. Given the Kuznetsian emphasis on a science‐fed technology, how then to explain the lack of Russian permeability to that technological flow? Many variables, such as excessive military spending, nationalism, rigid centralization, ideology, and so on, enter into such an analytical purview. It appears that neither tsarist nor Soviet Russia was able to create a culture adequately permeable to the dynamics of an ongoing science‐fed technological flow. The basic problem for Russia to overcome today is one of a cultural lag. A greater democratization of social and economic organization, concomitant with the needs of a modern industrial society, appears in order.