Retro- Authoritarianism….So Old, it’s New

December 21st, 2007 by zen

This pattern is hardly uniquely Russian. We have seen populist, plebiscitary yet police state regimes long before Vladimir Putin’s New Russia. Napoleon Bonaparte was the modern innovator, abolishing the decrepit Directorate and constructing a regime that offered a little something for everybody who wanted a glorious France; his cabinet included Jacobin Terrorists, Monarchists, Girondins, aristocracy, bourgeosie and the chameleon-like Talleyrand. Napleon made use of “new men” and flattered the old nobility even as he created a broad class of “notables” and answered the desire of the French for both greatness and order. Propaganda was used liberally but so to were the police-spies of Fouche to cadge Napoleon’s impressive plebescitary majorities out of the electorate. How different, functionally speaking, is Vladimir Putin? Or for that matter, Hugo Chavez ?

We  could go back still further to the Caesars – Julius and his canny heir Augustus. Both men understood well that truly revolutionary changes in a political system were most placidly accepted when cloaked in the guise of adhering to old forms and restoring order and normality ( it must be said though, that Octavian understood this better than his martial Uncle). After periods of disorder, want or uncertainty there has always been many people who are all too willing to trade liberty for economic security.

Whenever authoriarianism has the added attraction of marshalling competence and cultural values behind it’s standard, democrats should beware.

ADDENDUM:

Thomas P.M. Barnett – “Putin Positions himself as Russia’s Lee Kwan Yew”

The Guardian – “Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $ 40 bn fortune”

The Russia Blog – “Why Russia Loves Putin”

Michael Barone – “Putin: Odd Choice for Person of the Year“

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Posted in democracy, government, history, politics, putin, russia | 6 comments

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  1. CKR:

    December 21st, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    So much that could be said and so little time!

    We need only to go back to recent history: Russia’s humiliations of the nineties, which the US helped to exacerbate. Russia would probably blame the US for much of this anyway, but the US made some mistakes that should have been avoided. And those mistakes have been compounded and expanded during the early years of the twenty-first century.

    And that contrasts with China, which decided to put economics temporally before politics, in contrast to Gorbachev’s program. So Putin is reverting to a China model.

    I would like to think that the electronic openness that no country can any longer avoid (although North Korea and Turkmenistan seem to be having some success here), plus improving economics, will open up politics in both China and Russia. But it will take some time.

  2. zen:

    December 21st, 2007 at 3:15 pm

    I agree that U.S. policy toward Russia quite shortsighted played a role here, much to the dismay of Richard Nxon and not a few Soviet/Russia experts across the political spectrum at the time. The old Soviet nomenklatura and the oligarchs looted Russia to the tune of some $ 220 billion but that cash did not end up in mattresses in Minsk but primarily in Western bank accounts and both we and the Euros looked the other way.

    The fault for Russia’s parlous state in the 90’s was primarily that of the Russians themselves, predominantly from the accumulated damage inflicted by the Communists coming home to roost, secondarily by Yeltsin’s administration and corrupt clan. We however, missed an historic opportunity to try to help integrate Russia, warts and all, into the West and instead favored the short term interests of special pleaders in crafting Russia policy.  An epic waste of a historical moment.

  3. Larry:

    December 21st, 2007 at 11:43 pm

    "And that contrasts with China, which decided to put economics temporally before politics, in contrast to Gorbachev’s program. So Putin is reverting to a China model."

    But more than the China model, isn’t Putin just conforming to the Globalization model? As Barnett has said, Globalization will not look American. Isn’t Putin just going with what looks like globalization: don’t judge countries just trade deals, don’t judge leaders only non-zero sum partnerships, and don’t judge other governments value sets only their ability to stabilize global relationships?

    If that is what he is basing his governing on, then it doesn’t look like a real problem in the global market place. Are there some explicit rules that he is violating, which would exclude him from the global economy, or do you even think, by his action, that he is starting to exclude himself from the global market? In that case, is he using his advantage as a energy exporter to keep his economy afloat?

    In other words, other than possibility energy blackmail, in the context of globalization is there anything about his political actions that would exclude him or his country from the globalized world? China seems to be doing OK.

    " How different, functionally speaking, is Vladimir Putin? Or for that matter, Hugo Chavez ?"

    They have kept the Internet open? They enable their people to Observe and therefore believe their observations? Of course that in itself has made some rich and has lifted many out of poverty.

  4. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Retro-Authoritarianism in Russia:

    December 23rd, 2007 at 3:55 am

    […] Cross-posted at Zenpundit […]

  5. Michael:

    January 3rd, 2008 at 5:51 am

    Another article on the same subject:
    http://www.slate.com/id/2180857

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