Russian Modernization and Civil Society

Author: Andranik Migranyan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-11-01
Features: This book consists of three parts. The first part collects three essays by the author during the Soviet Union's reform period in the 1980s. The second part gathers ten essays, commentaries, interviews, and conference speeches written by the author in the years following President Putin's tenure, covering many situations and issues in the current Russian political system and political life, and elaborating on the author's analysis and perspectives on these issues. The third part collects five research reports on the current Russian political system, written under the leadership of Migranyan while he served as a vice chairman of the Political Research Department of the Russian "Reform" Foundation. This book undoubtedly provides great help for an in-depth understanding and study of the political system issues and mistakes in the Soviet Union's political system and reforms. The author's views, in the face of political and economic system reforms today, hold more practical reference value. Andranik Migranyan is a renowned Russian political scientist and former senior advisor to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Federation Supreme Soviet. This book can be considered a sister volume to "The Path to Modernization of Russia—Why So Turbulent," published by Xinhua Publishing House in January 2002.
This work discusses Russia's modernization issues, covering the general laws of modernization and the winding path Russia has taken over 2,000 years in modernization, along with its lessons. The focus of this book, however, is to explore the issues of political system reform and civil society during Russia's modernization process. The author's viewpoint is that modernization in any country is closely related to the formation and development of civil society. Modernization can only be achieved and consolidated on the basis of civil society, and the process of modernization is also the process of establishing and maturing civil society. Whether civil society can develop and mature depends on whether the relationships among the individual, society, and the state are handled correctly.