Therefore, the seeker after the truth is not one who studies the writings of the ancients and, following his natural disposition, puts his trust in them, but rather the one who suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration, and not to the sayings of a human being whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and de‹ciency. Thus the duty of the man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself the enemy of all that he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. He should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency. (Ibn al-Haytham)1

국제정치이론 = Theory of international politics

Europe undivided: democracy, leverage and integration after Communism

Authoritarian Backlash: Russian Resistance to Democratization in the Former Soviet Union

Marlene Laruelle's excellent and detailed study of the intellectual Eurasianist movement which essentially promotes an ideology of Russian-Asian greatness first saw the light of day in 2008, the sa...

Russian Eurasianism, an ideology of empire

In many autocracies, regime leaders share power with a ruling party, which can help generate popular support and reduce conflict among key elites. Such ruling parties are often called dominant parties. In other regimes, leaders prefer to rule solely through some combination of charisma, patronage, and coercion, rather than sharing power with a dominant party. This book explains why dominant parties emerge in some nondemocratic regimes, but not in others. It offers a novel theory of dominant party emergence that centers on the balance of power between rulers and other elites. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in Russia, original data on Russian political elites, and cross-national statistical analysis, the book's findings shed new light on how modern autocracies work and why they break down. The book also provides new insights about the foundations of Vladimir Putin's regime and challenges several myths about the personalization of power under Putin.

The Origins of Dominant Parties: Building Authoritarian Institutions in Post-Soviet Russia

The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) appeared in January 2015 as the latest and most ambitious attempt at reconnecting the post-Soviet space. Building on the Customs Union between Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan (2010), and successfully extending membership to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan (2015), the EAEU not only connects a market of over 182 million people, but has the stated aim of utilizing European Union experience to achieve deep integration in a fraction of the time. Based on original fieldwork conducted in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, this article examines the kind of integration project currently under construction, as well as the EAEU’s ability to make a significant impact in the region. As argued, despite early achievements, the EAEU is very much limited to reproducing sovereignty rather than transforming it, marking a clear disconnect between rhetoric and reality. Moreover, when viewed from the perspective of the three “I”s – institutions, identity, and international context – eve...

/pdf/the-eurasian-economic-union-a-case-of-reproductive-45p3gixe9u.pdf

The Eurasian Economic Union: a case of reproductive integration?

From its inception in 2001, the United Russia Party has rapidly developed into a hugely successful, organisationally-complex political party and key component of power. This book provides a much needed analysis on United Russia by exploring the role of the party in the Russian political system, from 2000 to 2010.  It explores the party empirically, as an impressive organisation in its own right, but also theoretically, as an independent or explanatory variable able to illumine the larger development of dominant-power politics in Russia in the same period. 
The book creates a model to understand the role of political parties in electorally-based political systems and shows how United Russia conforms to this model, and importantly, how the party also has unique features that affect its place in the political system. The book goes on to argue that United Russia represents a ‘virtual’ party hegemony, an outcome of political changes occurring elsewhere, and so a reversal of the typical relationship between parties and power found in comparative literature. This has potentially far reaching implications for our understanding of party dominance in the twenty-first century and also the sources of regime stability and instability.

Putin's United Russia Party

The literature dealing with the international dimensions of authoritarianism suggests that regional hegemons may exploit linkage and leverage to counter democracy and diffuse authoritarian ideas an...

/pdf/explaining-the-pattern-of-russian-authoritarian-diffusion-in-95b9irxzzv.pdf

Explaining the pattern of Russian authoritarian diffusion in Armenia

The extensive reflexive literature from many social science disciplines suggests that there are multiple factors that combine to affect the process of research. However, the relatively weak reflexi...

Research in challenging environments: the case of Russia’s ‘managed democracy’

Almost a decade after its creation, and despite its unequivocal status as a force in Russian party politics, United Russia has received relatively little direct research. For a number of reasons, a comparative approach seems a logical next step, with what may be termed a ‘dominant-party framework’ as an obvious choice to guide further research. While recent literature has focused on United Russia's development in the regions, providing valuable clues as to how dominant parties are formed, this article assesses the ability of the dominant-party framework to elaborate the kind of functions the party performs. This article argues that any exploration of party dominance in Russia that focuses solely on the party system as the unit of analysis misses important differences that exist between dominant parties and risks conflating party system dominance with political system dominance. By engaging with the party as the unit of analysis, in particular party origins, we gain a fuller appreciation of United Russia's...

Sean Roberts

Papers

The Eurasian Economic Union: a case of reproductive integration?

Putin's United Russia Party

Explaining the pattern of Russian authoritarian diffusion in Armenia

Research in challenging environments: the case of Russia’s ‘managed democracy’

United Russia and the dominant-party framework: Understanding the Russian party of power in comparative perspective