#256 Russian and American Think Tanks: An Initial Survey Conference papers from a November 1993 workshop at the Kennan Institute

"Consulting on the Policy of Reform: A Workshop for New Russian Think Tanks/' was held at the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies and independent research institutes throughout Washington, D.C., during the week of 8--12 November 1993. The conference was cosponsored by the Kennan Institute; Interlegal Research Center, Moscow; Interlegal USA, Inc., New York; and the Samuel Rubin Foundation, New York; with funding provided by the Eurasia Foundation of Washington, D.C.

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©May 1994 by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Edited by Peggy Mcinerny

RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN THINK TANKS:

AN INITIAL SURVEY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1 by Nina Belyaeva

Workshop Agenda v The Culture of American Think Tanks 1 by fames Allen Smith Think Tanks as Instruments for Enlightened and Responsible Pluralism 11 by Nina Belyaeva Periodicity in the Social Movement of the USSR 31 by Vyacheslav Igrunov The Independent Sector: Filling the Gap between Academic Science and Political Practice 41 by Anatoly Kovler Problems in Studying the Contemporary Russian Business Elite 53 by Vladimir Leplkhin The Analytical Community and Reform in Russia 61 by Gleb Pavlovsky The Russian Political Market 71 by Georgii Satarov About the authors 84

INTRODUCTION would like to thank the ing their social roots, the conditions that made their establishment and I Kennan fustitute, the Eurasia growth possible, issues of man- Foundation, Interlegal USA, agement, and the different models and the Samuel Rubin Founda­ that permit these institutions to tion for their support in realizing play a role in political decision the workshop "Consulting on the making; and 4) to explore oppor- Policy of Reform: A Workshop for tunities for possible cooperation New Russian Thlnk Tanks." This between U.S. and Russian inde- workshop, which took place from pendent research institutions. 8-12 November 1993, allowed a The introduction of Russian group of Russian who direct researchers and institutions to experts their counterparts in the United independent research institutes in States took place at a highly pro­ Moscow to learn about the political fessional level and proved very environment, practical activities, and useful for the Russian partici­ research products of think tanks in pants. A detailed description of the United States. The workshop each of the participating Russian provided us with numerous oppor­ think tanks, together with the cur­ tunities to discuss the issues of politi­ riculae vitae of the directors and cal culture that sustain U.S. think individual papers were dissemi­ tanks with such American experts nated to American colleagues in on these institutions as James Allen Washington-based institutions. We encountered sincere interest Smith of the Howard Gilman Foun­ and appreciation of the informa­ dation of New York and Kent tion we had to share, as well as a Weaver of the Brookings Institution. willingness to sustain professional It also permitted us to explore the and personal contacts at every in­ way in which these organizations stitution we visited. This was the develop their research agendas, first time many of the Russian conduct fundraising, and manage think tanks and their directors their activities. The papers that were officially introduced to their follow were written for the first analogues in the United States session of the workshop, a day­ and our visits provided them an long meeting held at the Kennan excellent introduction to the inde­ pendent U.S. research community Institute. Over the next four days, in Washington, D.C. we visited nine different think Undouotedly, our most impor­ tanks in the city, as well as the tant achievement was to learn Russian Area Studies Program of various skills, methods, and con­ Georgetown University, where I cepts from American think was currently teaching. taitks-from the importance of an When I began to plan this institution's governance structure, workshop, I had four basic goals. to the way in which research These were: 1) to introduce inde­ agendas are established, to the or­ pendent Russian research institu­ ganization of peer review proce­ tions and their directors to their dures for research products, to U.S. counterparts; 2) to examine issues of fundraising and public the research. products, research relations. I will briefly sketch here agendas, and institutional struc­ each of the workshop sessions tures of U.S. think tanks; 3) to and highlight specific features learn from the experience of the that the Russian participants American think tanks by examin- found of most interest. Introduction i At the Center for Strategic and tage Foundation. The Russian International Studies we learned participants were extremely im­ that CSIS does not have a large pressed by the wide variety of dif­ endowment and must raise funds ferent strategies, tactics, and types every year-definitely the case for of published materials that reach Russian institutions. In order to out to different audiences used by continue to raise funds, CSIS must these institutions-from thick present to potential funders well­ books to beautifully published an­ organized projects that have a direct nual reports, from modest news­ impact on practical decision makmg letters to briefing papers for the concerning domestic and foreign press, to published articles to pub­ policy. Of special interest to the lic events. Russian participants was the prac­ During a luncheon at the tice of creating congressional re­ RAND Corporation, the Russian search groups in which repre­ participants expressed a special sentatives ofboth parties consider interest in learning about ilie in­ leading issues in American poli­ ternal expertise of RAND in order tics. Such groups create "common to raise the quality of their re­ ground" for bipartisan discussion search products to RAND stand­ and provide highly professional ards. We were extremely lucky to published recommendations that have had Jeremy Azrael with us, are often used by policymakers. who is responsible for RAND's Also of interest was the CSIS de­ initiative to develop analytical ca­ partment of East European and pabilities for the Russian govern­ Russian studies, which has several ment in Russia, and learned about current projects in Russia and the project firsthand. Our meeting other CIS countries. For many of with administrators and re­ us, our visit to CSIS was the most searchers of the United States In­ memorable and perhaps the most stitute of Peace taught us productive of the workshop due something unique about its fund­ to shared research interests and ing: the money given to the Insti­ the applicability of the CSIS expe­ tute by the U.S. Congress becomes rience to most of the Russian insti­ independent the minute it is tutions represented. transferred into the Institute's ac­ At the Foreign Policy Institute count. This permits the Institute a of the Johns Hopkins University great deal offreedom in designing (Nitze School of Advanced Inter­ its research projects, freeing it national Studies), we learned a from the headaches of fundraising peculiarity of this particular type and tailoring research to fit the in­ of think tank model: the re­ terests of sponsors. Not only did searchers themselves are gener­ we learn from our colleagues at ally responsible for raising the USIP, we had an opportunity to funds for their individual research share our analysis of the October projects. At the American Enter­ 1993 crisis in Russia from the dif­ prise Institute we participated in a ferent perspectives of our respec­ discussion of different models of tive think tanks. think tanks and the specific role At the Brookings Institution played by conservative think we could not but note the impor­ tanks in the "political market" of tance of its history and the major U.S. social science. Our hosts there stages of its development as one presented a comparative analysis of the classic private think tanks of the activities of the American in American society. In practical Enterprise Institute and the Heri- terms, we learned about publicity ii Introduction matters and the way in which backgrounds of their institutions. Brookings arranges support for its For example, Anatoly Kovler and research among locaf communi­ his institution (Center for Com­ ties of businessmen and politi­ parative Law, Institute of State cians. One fascinating detail we and Law, Moscow) have been learned was that a fiJ:lal research deeply involved in drafting the product is sometimes advertised new constitution and he naturally before the product is ready in or­ defended the necessity of its der to prepare its potential audi­ adoption. Vyacheslav Igrunov ence. and researchers of his Institute of At the Progressive Policy Insti­ Humanities and Political Studies tute we had the privilege of recently joined the block of econo­ speaking with its president, William mist Grigorii Yavlinskii, who Marshal, who presented the his­ strongly opposed the adoption tory, logic, and strategy of a think of the new constitution. Gleb tank attached to and working for Pavlovsky, leader of a non-parlia­ a certain political movement mentary opposition movement, (Clinton's "new Democrats"), a had strong arguments for boycotting movement that has succeeded in the electoral campaign altogether. attracting part of the conservative The discussion that followed electorate. As Russian think tanks served to clarify the positions of are in many cases highly politi­ the participating think tanks cized and sometimes even work within the Russian political spec­ within certain political movements, trum. the experience of the Progressive At the Heritage Foundation, Policy Institute was extremely we had an opportunity to learn relevant and prompted a number from its expertise in intensive and of questions and an interesting efficient use of the mass media, discussion among the Russian re­ public relations, public lectures, searchers. and other social events that allow A meeting with professors and its researchers to deliver their students of the Russian Area message on policy issues to politi­ Studies Program at Georgetown cians, the mass media, other ex­ University allowed us to recog­ perts, and the general public. The nize the tremendous advantages Russian participants were im­ that a small, specialized think pressed by the fact that for every tank would enjoy in an estab­ researcher at Heritage, there are lished and prestigious university. three to four support staff who Professors and students specializing package or repackage the re­ in Russian studies were extremely searcher's product to make it interested in taking advantage of available to the public and the our knowledge concerning the media. 1993 election campaign and we Overall, the workshop con­ organized a public debate about firmed my impression that oppor­ the political blocks participating tunities for cooperation between in the campaign and their poten­ American and Russian re­ tial electoral appeal. The discus­ searchers exist on two different sion was fascinating even to levels: individual cooperation and myself because on most points, institutional links. Although indi­ the Russian participants had differ­ vidual cooperation has occurred ent attitudes, arguments, and even many times, institutional interac­ philosophies that represented the tion requires a different level of un­ specific theoretical and political derstanding, mutual interest, Introduction iii special conditions and special Igrunov and Vladimir Lepekhin, structures. There are potentially were subsequently elected to the great opportunities for institutional State Duma and are now able to cooperation between Russian and facilitate links between new think American think tanks, but at pre­ tanks and the new power struc­ sent, existing structures and pro­ tures of Russia. Another partici­ grams do not promote it. One pant, Georgy Satarov, was later result of the workshop was the re­ appointed advisor to the Russian newed commitment of the Russian president on parliamentary and participants to cooperate among public organizations matters. themselves in an "intellectual cor­ In conclusion, I should note poration" initially formed in No­ that the Russian researchers who vember-December 1992 as a way participated in the workshop to network and unite intellectucil Iound that Russian and American resources in Russia. After attend­ think tanks had more in common ing all of the workshop sessions, than they had anticipated. Not we agreed to work to make the only do these institutions share an corporation a practical organiza­ interest in a number of relevant is­ tiorial structure Ior mutual support, sues, we believe that Russian public relations, and the market­ think tanks in the future will be ing of research products produced able to provide useful insights by our respective think tanks. and experience for their American Due to the stormy development colleagues. Institutional coopera­ of Russian politics, it is difficult tion does not begin easily, but ad­ to establish a strict boundary be­ ditional efforts in this field may be tween political analysts and rewarding in the future. Interlegal politicians today-many of the has promised the Russian work­ Russian participants in the shop partici~ants to continue to workshop came from strong re­ develop an 'intellectual corpora­ search backgrounds, but were tion" as a mutual support struc­ on the eds-e of full-time in­ ture that will eventually include volvement m political work in organizations from outside of November 1993. It was thus Moscow and other countries of sometimes difficult for them to the Commonwealth of Independent specify when they were acting as States. researchers and when as politi­ cians. Two participants, Vyacheslav Nina Belyaeva

iv Introduction WORKSHOP AGENDA CONSULTING ON THE • Issues of Governance: Legal Status POLICY OF REFORM: of the Independent ThiDk Tank; Structure of the Governing Board; A WORKSHOP FOR NEW Protection of Institutional Auton­ RUSSIAN THINK TANKS omy NOVEMBER 8--12, 1993 • Research Networks: Internal and External. Cosponsored by the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Panel III. Studies; Interlegal Research Center, Moderator: Blair A. Ruble, Director, Moscow; Interlegal USA, Inc., New Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian York; and the Samuel Rubin Studies. Foundation, New York; with "Interlegal Research Center and the Role funding provided by the Eurasia of Emerging Think Tanks in Policy Con­ Foundation, Washington, D.C. sulting in Russia," Nina Belyaeva, Presi­ dent, Interlegal Research Center, Monda.x. 8 November 1993 Moscow; Adjunct Professor, Russian Workshop Session I. Area Studies Program, Georgetown Uni­ The Regent's Room, third floor, Woodrow versity; and Adjunct Professor, Depart­ Wilson International Center for Scholars, ment of Russian and East European 1000 Jefferson Drive, S. W, Washington, Studies, Nitze School of Advanced Inter­ D.C. 20560. national Studies, Johns Hopkins Univer­ sity. Panel I. Introductory Remarks: Blair A. Ruble, "INDEM Center and the Analysis of Po­ Director, Kennan Institute for Advanced litical Consciousness and Parliamenta­ Russian Studies. rism in Russia," Georgy Satarov,. Head, Moderator: Nina Belyaeva, President, INDEM (INformatics for DEMocracy) Interlegal Research Center, Moscow; Ad­ Center for Applied Political Studies, junct Professor, Russian Area Studies Moscow; Director-General, Russian Socio­ Program, Georgetown University; and Political Center, Moscow; and Member:. Adjunct Professor, Department of Russian Presidental Council of the Russian Fed­ and East European Studies, Nitze School eration. of Advanced International Studies, Johns "PostFactum News Ageny, the Mass Me­ Hopldns University. dia, and the Development of Political uThink Tanks in American Political Culture," Pluralism in Russia Today," Gleb James Allen Smith, Executive Director, Pavlovksy, Editor-in-Chief, 20th Century The Howard Gilman Foundation, New and the World, Moscow; Co-Director, York; author, The Idea Brokers; and author:. Analytical Center "20th Century and the institutional histories of The Brooldngs World;" and Senior Adviser (former Institution and The Center for Strategic President), PostFactum News Agency, and International Studies. Commentator: Moscow. Brad Roberts, Editor, The Washington "The Russian Institute and Monitoring Quarterly. the Formation of New Russian Business Panel II. Elites," Vladimir Lepekhin, Director:. Moderator: James Allen Smith, Execu­ Russian Institute, Moscow; Coordinator, tive Director, The Howard Gilman Foun­ Russian Association of Political Experts dation, New York. and Advisors; and Member of the Board, "Institute of Development" Foundation, Dr. Smith led participants in a discussion Moscow. of the structure and function of American independent research institutes, touching "The Institute of Humanities and Political upon the following issues: Studies and the Study of Political Life in the Russian Provinces," Vyacheslav • Funding/Government Contracts Igrunov, Director, Institute of Humani­ • Communication with the Policy­ tarian-Political Studies, Moscow; Head, maldng Elite (Domestic and For­ Information Department, Russian Fed­ eign Policy) eration Committee on National Policy; Agenda v and Contributor, 20th Century and the RAND Corporation World. 2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037 "The Russian Academy of Sciences and (202) 296-5000 Independent Social Science Research in Russia Today," Anatoly Kovler, Senior Host Scott Harris, Senior Policy Analyst. Researcher, Jnterlegal Research Center, Moscow; Director, Center for Compara­ Workshop Session VI. tive Law, Institute of State and Law, Russian Meeting with administrators and researchers Academy of Sciences; and Head, Political of the United States Institute for Peace. Parties and Political Marketing Desk, United States Institute of Peace Russian Academy of Management, Ad­ 1550 M Street, N.W. ministration of the President of the Rus­ Suite 700 sian Federation. Washington, D.C. 20005-1708 (202) 457-1700 Tuesday; 9 November 1993 Host: Patricia Carley, Program Officer. Workshop Session II. Meeting and luncheon with researchers and Thursday. 11 November 1993 administrators of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Workshop Session VII. Meeting with researchers and adminstrators CSIS of The Brookings Institution. 1800 K Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006 The Brookings Institution (202) 887-0200 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036 Host: Richard Murphy, Director of Public (202) 797-6000 Relations. Host: Drew Portocarrero, Brookings Workshop Session III. Council Manager. Meeting with researchers and administrators of the Foreign Policy Institute, Johns Workshop Session VIII. Hopkins University. Meeting with the President of the Progressive Policy Institute. Foreign Policy Institute Nitze School of Advanced Progressive Policy Institute International Studies 316 Pennsylvania Avenue, S.E. The Johns Hopkins University Suite555 1619 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20003 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 547-0001 (202) 663-5773 Host: Will Marshall, President. Host: Charles Fairbanks, Research Pro­ Workshop Session IX. fessor of International Relations. Meeting with professors and students of the Russian Area Studies Program (RASP) of Wednesday. 10 November 1993 Georgetown University. Russian Area Studies Program Workshop Session N. Meeting with researchers and administrators 232 Intercultural Center (ICC) Building of the American Enterprise Institute. Georgetown University 37th & 0 Streets, N.W. American Enterprise Institute Washington, D.C. 20057 1150 Seventeenth St., N.W. (202) 687-6080 Washington, D.C. 20036 (202) 862-5800 Host: Harley Baize~ Director, RASP.

Host: Thomas Skladony, Director of Friday. 12 November 1993 Communications. Workshop Session X. Workshop Session V. Meeting and luncheon with researchers and Luncheon at the RAND Corporation. administrators of the Heritage Foundation. vi Agenda Heritage Foundation Regent's Room, Third Floor 214 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E. Woodrow Wilson International Washington, D.C. 20002 Center for Scholars (202) 546-4400 1000 Jefferson Drive, S.W Host: Ariel Cohen, Salvatori Fellow in Washington, D.C. 20560 Russian and Eurasian Studies. (202) 357-2429 I Woodrow Wilson Center (202) 287-3499/Kennan Institute Workshop Session XI. Press briefinf{, Regent's Room, third floor, Host: Blair A. Ruble, Director, Kennan In­ Woodrow Wilson Center. stitute for Advanced Russian Studies.

Agenda vii

THE CULTURE OF AMERICAN THINK TANKS by James Allen Smith he term "think tank" is could plan and discuss strategy; such a room in the Pentagon in Ta curious phrase. The the 1940s apparently looked like images that it conjures an empty swimming pool and up in the popular mind are am­ people descended into the "tank." biguous. Some people imagine On the eve of the Cold War, newly think tanks as ethereal retreats, created nongovernmental research isolated and insulated from the organizations such as the RAND real world, places where theorists Corporation began to work on dreamily contemplate the future. military researCh and develop- ment contracts. They were the Others envision think tanks as first private research institutions practical institutions where high­ to be described as think tanks. By powered intellects are hard at the late 1950s and early 1960s, es- work devising solutions to the pecially with the arrival of the tough problems that politicians RAND "whiz kids" in Washington, and government bureaucrats are D.C., during the administration of loathe to confront. Still others see President John F. Kennedy and them simply as comfortable intel­ Lyndon B. Johnson's subsequent lectual abodes, a secluded rural reliance on outside experts for cre- ating domestic social programs, estate or tony urban townhouse the term was soon applied to all where erstwhile politicians and nongovernmental organizations that former policy advisers bide their supplied research expertise to the time after they and their parties federal government. More recently, have been voted out of office. And after the conservative counterrevo- some simply see contemporary lution of the 1970s and 1980s gave think tanks as noisy, self-promoting birth to a new breed of ideologically organizations that are constantly aggressive research and advocacy trying to push ideas from the mar­ centers, the term "think tank" be- gan to alternate with newly coined gins of intellectual life into the and rather infelicitous phrases such mainstream of political discourse. as "advocacy tank" and "do tank." Those are the most widely held The term will always remain views, and each is not without a imprecise. It is a colloquialism, kernel of reality. and it tries to describe a malleable It is not at all surprising that set of institutions. "Think tank" "think tank," a generic and collo­ lumps together very different quial term that has evolved over types of organizations. The term the past half century, has many encompasses staid, academically­ layers of ambiguity for Americans. oriented think tanks where distin­ When appropriated by other lan­ guished scholars write books guages and other political cultures, which may some day shape the its meanings become even more way policymakers think about a ambiguous. The term-and the problem-the Brookings Institution kinds of American institutions it is the prototype of such an organi­ describes-defies easy definition. zation. It also refers to contract re­ "Think tank" was first em­ search organizations that are ployed by Americans as military hired to take on research projects jargon during World War IT, when for the Energy Department, the it was used to refer to a secure Defense Department, the Agency room where military officers for International Development, or Smith 1 other governmental agencies-the ished the practical insights of the RAND Corporation and the Urban common citizen and scorned the Institute are among the best expert and intellectual, politics known in this category. The term and governance were nonetheless also embraces organizations that treated as matters of science by tend to work on more urgent is­ the Founders and their intellectual sues, setting up academic study heirs. Among thoughtful Americans, groups, task forces, and prestig­ a science of society has always ious commissions, and issuing re­ held out the promise of tempering ports and recommendations for democratic discord and uncer­ direct consumption in the White tainty. House or the Capitol-the Center This persistent search for a so­ for Strategic and International cial science gained momentum in Studies (CSIS) operates in this the second half of the nineteenth mode. The name "think tank" is century. In those decades the also applied to organizations that transformation of an insular, adopt a strongly ideological ap­ agrarian society into an urban, proach; while engaged in researCh, industrial nation gave a sense of writing, and publishing, their overt urgency to the study of social, aim is political advocacy and ar­ political, and economic problems. gumentation-in this category, By the early years of the twentieth the Heritage Foundation is the century a new pragmatic ap­ best known on the right and the proach to the study of society had Institute for Policy Studies is the taken shape. The emerging social best known on the left. In science yielded new professional Washington, D.C., the label "think associations of economists and tank" can easily be affixed to political scientists, university de­ more than 100 institutions; across partments devoted to post-gradu­ the country, there are, by my best ate training and research, journals estimate, some 1,200. dedicated to socially relevant re­ Although many new think search and practical reform, and tanks have been established in the national organizations examining United States in the last twenty­ a wide range of social and eco­ five years (approximately two­ nomic issues. In the early years of thirds of Washington's policy this century, academic specialists research organizations have been trained in the increasingly distinct founded since 1970), private ef­ disciplines of economics, political forts to organize expertise reflect science, and sociology were rou­ aspects of American political cul­ tinely appointed to various gov­ ture that are much more deeply ernmental advisory commissions. rooted. Indeed, the history of po­ The earliest American think litical experts and advisers in the tanks-the Russell Sage Foundation United States is a much longer in New York (founded in 1906), story than the modem term the research and training insti­ "think tank" would suggest. tutes (1916 and after) that coa­ Despite the under1ying anti­ lesced to form the Brookings intellectualism that has perenni­ Institution in Washington, the ally characterized political life in Twentieth Century Fund (1919), the United States, intellectuals the National Bureau of Economic have been drawn into politics Research in New York (1919), and since the earliest days of the dozens of research bureaus exam­ American republic. While our ining urban and state policy egalitarian sentiments have cher- concerns-were born within this 2 Smith context. These institutions repre­ Washington-based think tank, was sented a new effort to make pro­ conceived in the 1910s primarily to fessional social science research help the president and fiis executive available to elected and appointed agencies gain a better understanding officials as well as to the broader of budgeting and acrounting methodS public. Their approach was prag­ and modem administrative proce­ matic, preferring fact-gathering dures. Concerned about the weak­ over theorizing, and driven by the ness of the presidency, the founders search for solutions to immediate of Brookings sought to wrest control problems. of the budget-making process from To understand how and why congressional committees and to Americans have used private in­ bring scientific management tech­ stitutions to organize knowledge niques from business corporations to serve public ends, it is impor­ into public agencies. tant to underscore several distinc­ Other major think tanks, such tive aspects of this nation's as the American Enterprise Insti­ political and intellectual life. tute (AEn, founded in the 1940s, American think tanks emerged in and the Heritage Foundation, es­ a very specific institutional con­ tablished in the 1970s, were created text and, at different moments, with a commitment to helping have been shaped by discrete his­ legislators and their then rela­ torical circumstances. Any general tively small staffs. The founders of lessons to be drawn about this set both AEI and Heritage felt that in­ of institutions must be moderated tellectual analysis and research by an tmderstanding of the par­ were abundantly available to the ticular political and cultural context executive and that there was an in which they have operated. imbalance in the intellectual contest Even the nation which has most between the branches. They pro­ closely shared the American vided briefing papers and legisla­ democratic experience, namely tive analyses to like-minded Great Britain, has not created as congressmen and their staffs. robust a universe of independent Since early in the twentieth research institutions; nor have century, think tanks have prodded other western democracies. What each branch of government to set particular traits of the American up their own research and ana­ political system have caused these lytic departments. At times, think institutions to emerge in such tanks have also worked between large numbers? the executive and legislative The long-enduring constitu­ branches, easing the flow of infor­ tional framework of the United mation between the two and initi­ States provides the starting point ating mechanisms for the two for any analysis of the working branches to discuss emerging is­ environment of American think sues and coordinate policy re­ tanks. Put simply, the United sponses. The Center for Strategic States is not a parliamentary and International Studies has spe­ democracy. The separation of cialized in these sorts of activities. powers between the executive CSIS has even found that, despite and legislative branches of gov­ the expansion of government in ernment creates a tension in the recent decades, an increasingly policy-making process that has fragmented committee and sub­ consistently driven both branches committee structure in Congress to seek expert advice. The Brookings and a balkanized executive branch Institution, the prototypical bureaucracy have provided new Smith 3 opportunities to create channels working outside government. The for the flow of information and to absence of a permanent adminis­ establish new arenas for inter­ trative class on the British or con­ agency and interbranch policy tinental model has thus resulted discussions. in a very porous political system Competition between the and more fluid career patterns for branches of government has individuals engaged in research driven a parallel competition and analysis. Consequentljj re­ among th.inl< tanks. However, the search organizations that function traditional American disdain for on the periphery of government governmental bureaucracies and play a far more significant role in the suspicion of intellectuals has the United States than in other na­ tended to keep experts on the tions, with policy experts typically margins of govermnent-working entering and leaving government in privately funded institutions­ posts quite frequently. throughout much of the nation's American think tanks depend history. Compared to Germanjj to a high degree on the fluidity of France, and Great Britain, the career patterns and the eagerness United States was slow to develop with which American academics a civil service. Until the post-war and intellectuals often move from era, it remained reluctant to create one institution to another. The governmental research institutes routine flow of people into and or to support analytic work out of government is only one fea­ within government departments. ture ofthat flexibility. Equally im­ Although excellent work is now portant is the relative openness of done by the Congressional hiring process in American uni­ Budget Office, the Office of Man­ versities, especially when com­ agement and Budget, and else­ pared to the European or where, there remains a lingering Japanese systems. Business and suspicion of research emanating government consulting contracts from the government. Consequently, also add a lubricating element to over the years a number of non­ the career flow among different governmental think tanks have institutions. earned reputations for inde­ Throughout much of the pendent judgment and scholarly twentieth century American think soundness that give their reports tanks have had another advan­ and recommendations great credi­ tage, one that is a consequence of bility in policy discussions. Their the nation's rather peculiar two­ reports are cited by policymakers; party system. At the national journalists tum to them for com­ level, American parties have mentary and analysis; and their tended to be electoral coalitions best publications often find their rather than organizations with a way into the college classroom as distinctive ideological identity student textbooks. and coherent governing pro­ The belated development of a grams. Only very recentljj with civil service tradition and the the formation of the Democratic preference for relying on political Leadership Council and, in 1989, appointees for jobs that in other the Progressive Policy Institute, countries would most probably for example, have American par­ have remained in the hands of ties or factions within parties es­ permanent civil servants have tablished their own research opened the door (sometimes seen organizations with close partisan as a revolving door) for people affiliations. More typically, candi- 4 Smith dates and factions within parties the creation of research institutes. have turned to individual re­ While some of the nation's most searchers in think tanks or to uni­ venerable think tanks owe their versity scholars for ad hoc advice beginnings to the generosity of during electoral campaigns and the early foundations, the latter presidential transitions. At elec­ made their most lasting contribu­ tion time, policy proposals must tion by creating an infrastructure be formulated ana revised hastily; for training researchers at the for the electoral victors, staff re­ graduate level and supporting the cruitment and the initiation of basic research that must proceed policy changes must proceed at a any practical policy application. frantic pace. Because of the nature Foundations also proved to be of our two-party system, the important in supporting specific American electoral process is re­ projects that demonstrated over markably open to the participa­ the long term the value of data tion of individuals working collection and analytic research outside government and within for policymakers. The economic the community of think tanks and data collected by the National universities. Bureau of Economic Research in The Constitution of the United the 1920s, for example, pointed States, the traditions of civil service the way for the larger-scafe, more and political appointments, and permanent efforts to monitor the the nature of the American party economy initiated by the Depart­ system define the terrain within ment of Commerce in the 1930s. which think tanks operate. How­ More recently, the budget analy­ ever, it is the deeply ingrained ses undertaken by the Brookings philanthropic haoits of the Institution-published annually American people, embodied in since 1971-=-clemonstrated the private foundations, individual value of rigorous economic analysis aonations and bequests, and cor­ to Congress. By 1974 Congress porate philanthropic contribu­ had been inspired to create its tions, that allow think tanks to own analytic department, the move and operate on that political Congressional Budget Office. landscape. Large-scale foundation It is the diversity of financial giving began in the first decades support-from more than 30,000 of this century and helped to de­ foundations in the United States, fine the shape and function of in­ to countless individual donors, to dependent policy research institu­ hundreds of corporations, to gov­ tions. ernment grants and contracts­ Foundations that were created that supplies a framework for the from the fortunes of industrialists relative intellectual independence like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew of the nation's policy research in­ Carnegie, or the Wall Street finan­ stitutions. Although constantly cier Russell Sage, were managed seeking funds for salaries and re­ by professional philanthropists search projects and occasionally who sought to understand the susceptible to pressure from fun­ root causes of social and economic ders, American think tanks can problems. As a result, they de­ rely on a variety of financial ar­ voted the bulk of their resources rangements. With a philanthropic not to traditional charitable activi­ sector so fully developed, they ties, but rather to professional can maintain a high degree of in­ training, graduate education, tellectual and political autonomy basic and applied research, and by maintaining diverse funding Smith 5 sources and never letting one fun­ structure, procedures for setting a der become too dominant. research agenda, the definition of These are some of the most ob­ its audience(s), and financial ar­ vious elements that have shaped rangements. Although these may the external political and intellec­ seem tedious and irrelevant topics tual environment in which Ameri­ at a time when some societies are can think tanks operate. Anyone engaged in sweeping transitions who tries to transplant this insti­ toward democracy, they cannot be tutional form to another climate dismissed as merely administra­ should be aware of the ingredi­ tive or managerial matters. These ents that have nurtured it in the are the issues that determine United States. Transplantation whether a think tank will succeed should thus proceed cautiously. or fail over the long run. They are Even in a nation that has grown fundamental to the construction accustomed to relying on pri­ and continuation of civil societies, vately organized centers of policy and they will be essential if think expertise, these institutions are tanks in emerging democracies fragile. Very few have accumu­ are to interact with long-established lated financial endowments and, think tanks, foundations, and consequently, they are constantly other nongovernmental organiza­ under pressure to raise money tions in the west. I offer these (one prominent Washington think thoughts and reflections not as a tank raises ninety percent of its historian engaged in research on twelve-million-dollar annual budget these institutions, but as a practi­ during the course of each fiscal cal administrator who worked for year). Relatively few offer the job six years as a program director in security and career continuity of one think tank and who now major universities. Staff members serves as the executive director of must be continually recruited and a foundation. research agendas periodically re­ There are refreshing elements vised in order to reflect the emer­ of spontaneity and fluidity in the gence of new policy problems and habit of free association that tradi­ to continue to attract financial re­ tionally gives birth to nongovern­ sources from foundations. Most mental organizations. Yet formal importantly, reputations must be governance structures should not carefully cultivated and protected be neglected. They are every bit as if a think tank is to remain influ­ important to nonprofit institu­ ential and respected. tions as constitutions are to demo­ These mundane concerns cratic states. What does the term compel us to examine the inner "governance" mean when we culture of think tanks. A culture is, speak of nongovernmental or­ in essence, an accumulation of ganizations? In the broadest sense, habits. Accordingly, we must look governance is about the source of at the institutional habits and ultimate authority in an institu­ practices that allow think tanks to tion; governance in a think tank, survive over the long term, to per­ foundation, or other nonprofit in­ form sound analytic work consis­ stitution concerns the role and re­ tently, and to earn reputations that sponsibilities of a board of will serve their long-term inter­ trustees. ests. The legal responsibilities of a Several factors define the in­ nonprofit corporation's trustees ternal culture of a think tank, are well-defined in the United among them the governance States. Presumably, those respon- 6 Smith sibilities will also eventually be set that staff will be organized, and out in statutes concernmg the what its morale will be. There are charitable sector in the law of at least four general models for Russia and other emerging demo­ organizing research. First, think cratic states. It is the practical role tanks can operate much like uni­ of trustees that deserves comment versities where researchers, for the here. Trustees play an important most part, define their own re­ complementary function to that of search and writing tasks. They the academic researchers, policy confer with their scholarly col­ analysts, and writers who inhabit leagues and departmental direc­ a think tank and carry on its day­ tors, while the think tank's top to-day work. They have a per­ managers and trustees are ex­ spective on practical and political pected to give general assent (and matters that can be very helpful help raise research funds) for the when research projects and strate­ project. Except in rare circum­ gies for disseminating reports and stances, however, the research studies are being devised. An as­ agenda is set from below by the tutely chosen board can help a researchers themselves. Such in­ think tank build bridges to the stitutions generally have rigorous governmental and business worlds standards for reviewing and pub­ and strengthen relationships with lishing manuscripts; projects may universities and the media. Board go on for years, and the ultimate members are expected to take part product will be a book. Inevitably, in an institution's fundraising and these institutions look ahead at can serve as a buffer against extemal policy developments that are political or public pressures. Trusteesbip is a concept that is three to five years over the hori­ fundamental to a well-functioning zon. Second, think tanks can func­ nongovernmental sector. While the founders of think tanks are tion as research clearinghouses. typically entrepreneurial and in­ Research staff rely on basic re­ dependent by temperament, and search conducted in universities no doubt reluctant to share decision­ or other think tanks in order to making authority with others, write short reports and briefing they should not overlook the papers or edit publications aimed longer-term institutional viability at specific policy audiences. Such of their enterprise. Trustees are re­ institutions are interpreters and sponsible not only for preserving translators of academic research, financial resources, but possess a often filtering it through ideologi­ moral obligation as well; their cal or partisan lenses. They seek to duty is to sustain and renew the add their voices to the most current vision of an institution's founders. legislative or executive branch A competent body of trustees as­ policy debates. In these sorts of sures the continuity of the institu­ think tanks, it is primarily admin­ tion and the credibility of its istrators who define the research work. agenda, assigning teams of young A think tank's research agenda researchers to projects that may defines its purpose, its role in the last a few weeks or months. Their policy-making process, and, ulti­ perspective is shorter, the pace of mately, its reputation. How that writing and publishing more hur­ agenda is shaped and focused de­ ried. These institutions succeed termines a great deal about the re­ only when there is a clearly un­ search staff it will employ, how derstood and routine process of Smith 7 internal consultation for setting opinion pieces. It is equally im­ the agenda. portant in these institutions that Third, a number of think tanks the staff understand how the work primarily as contract re­ agenda is being set and be regu­ search firms. Managers and senior larly involved in a consultative research staff members confer process, yet also have opportuni­ with government agencies or pri­ ties to write and publiSh. under vate business firms and compete their own name and not serve for contracts. The research agenda solely as anonymous draftsmen is set through a process of external for collective reports. negotiation and, ultimately, by While think tanks may look success in a bidding process. The very much alike from the outside, research findings and reports usu­ the internal mechanisms that set ally become ilie property of the research agendas and define pub­ agency or firm that pays for them. lishing programs determine the Research staff members move daily work routine of an individ­ from project to project with little ual think tank. Those that operate time to devote to their own writ­ shrewdly and effectively within ing. In these institutions, re­ the policy process are very cogni­ searchers must understand the zant of the audiences they intend nature of contract research and to reach and of the best means serving the client. Managers, in for communicating to those audi­ contrast, must do what they can ences. Books and published reports to give researchers a modicum of are important intellectual artifacts, flexibility, perhaps ten percent of bestowing academic credibility their working hours, for research and authority on a think tank and and writing that they can treat as its individual staff members; their own. however, they are not necessarily Fourth, a handful of think the most effective tools for reach­ tanks find that they can have a ing policymakers or the public. dramatic influence on the policy Since the 1970s some think process, albeit less through their tanks have engaged in aggressive research and publications than efforts to use the print and broad­ through the conversations they cast media. The most successful spark. These organizations assemble see their research staff publish as discussion groups that bridge many as two or three hundred diverse constituencies with the in­ newspaper opinion pieces each tent of working toward a consensus year and appear countless times on practical policy recommenda­ on television interview programs. tions. They bring together influen­ While such efforts add to the visi­ tial policymakers, business bility and luster of a think tank, leaders, and academic specialists. they are largely ephemeral and do The agenda in these sorts of insti­ not necessarily make significant tutions is set at the very highest contributions to the nation's un­ level of the administration. Staff derstanding of contemporary af­ members work to organize meet­ fairs. ings and policy briefing sessions, The lessons that the most suc­ seeing their role as one of educat­ cessful think tanks have learned ing leaders about the intricacies of about communicating with their a given issue. Their publications audiences are simple. Know what are typically in the form of com­ information a specific audience mission reports, edited conference needs and be aware of the best proceedings, and newspaper timing for its delivery. Use as 8 Smith many publishing and broadcast formula for financial success, but vehicles to carry a message as you the survivors (and even the most can. Set up a series of face-to-face distinguished think tanks have interactions with policymakers been through perilously hard fiscal and the public, and do so long be­ times at some point in their histo­ fore a published study or report ries) have managed to diversify appears. Policy-making emerges their sources of funding and ex­ from conversation and debate, pect to see the mix of foundation, and think tanks must operate in corporate, and government both an oral and written culture. money shift from decade to dec­ Money is the final topic of this ade. essay, although it is inevitably the Whether the institution of the first and most worrisome subject think tank can be transported into for those who preside over think another political culture, espe­ tanks. Where is it going to come cially an emerging democracy, from? How much can we get? will remain an open question for What strings, if any, are likely to many years to come. In the be attached? The most important United States, it took decades for lesson that can be drawn from them to evolve into their now rec­ those think tanks that have sur­ ognizable forms. Their forms and vived for twenty or thirty years functions are a result of conditions and longer is that support must peculiar to this nation's political be drawn from a wide variety of institutions and the organization sources. A combination of founda­ of its intellectual life. Other demo­ tion grants, corporate contribu­ cratic nations have found different tions, individual donations, ways to organize applied policy contracts, and fees for publica­ research, and they have certainly tions or other services gives an in­ discovered more efficient ways to stitution both a higher degree of educate, inform, and advise politi­ intellectual autonomy and a better cians and policymakers. chance of adapting to changing Observing Washington's think patterns of financial support. tanks with a historian's detach­ The mix of funding sources is ment and a New Yorker's remove always likely to change over time. from the clamoring boasts about The largest American foundations, how one or another think tank for example, supported policy re­ may have influenced this piece of search lavishly in the 1950s and legislation or that presidential de­ 1960s, but began to curtail their cision, we can ask what think funding in the 1970s, especially tanks do, for good or ill, in our after their endowments began to national life. Since the tum of the decline in value in 1973. Govern­ century, clearly, they have prod­ ment contracts were relatively ded government to do more re­ generous from the late 1960s search, to support more research, through the 1970s, but they began and to take economic and other to dry up, at least for domestic social science analysis more seri­ social research, in the 1980s after ously. Research may not be deci­ the election of Ronald Reagan. A sive in the formation of policy, but number of corporations and cor­ it has become an important part porate foundations were eager to of the debate. support think tanks from the mid- The language of policy discus­ 1970s through the early 1980s, but sion and the standards of evi­ their fascination with policy re­ dence and argumentation have search waned. There is no sure also changed over the years. Al- Smith 9 though think tanks can be justly piecemeal reform. Thus, from criticized for not doing more to their earliest days in the 1910s educate and enlighten the average think tanks have tended to pull citizen, they have played a American politics toward the cen­ healthy stabilizing political role. ter, workirig with elites from aca­ While think tanks typically cele­ demia, government, and business brate innovative ideas, seeing to bring about policy compromise themselves as generators of and consensus. It is a valuable change, they have also had the contribution. If democracy is viewed effect of slowing the pace of policy as a continuing, yet perpetually innovation. Evaluating past pro­ risky experiment in self-govern­ grams and criticizing new ment, then there will continue to schemes, they have raised the be an important role for think threshold over which new policy tanks. They serve as democracy's initiatives must pass. While the laboratories, places where hy­ voices from thinK tanks are often potheses and assumrtions are ex­ disparate, loud, and cacophonous, amined, professiona standards of the long-term impact is usually evidence afplied, and the open one of moderate policy change, of exchange o ideas sustained.

10 Smith THINK TANKS AS INSTRUMENTS FOR ENLIGHTENED AND RESPONSIBLE PLURALISM by Nina Belyaeva

n the midst of referenda, specific function, one not usually I elections, and constitu­ considered a role of think tanks at tional reform, many have all. Yet I believe it is absolutely not noticed the development of an critical for Russia to determine the institution that is also certain to role that intellectuals will play in have a significant long-term im­ this new stage of reform, when we vitally need not so much po­ pact on Russia's future: inde­ litical courage, as deep knowledge pendent research institutions or, and professionalism. as they are commonly known in Think tanks, of course, are not America, "think tanks." Their original to Russia. As is the case work has been intimately con­ with many democratic institu­ nected with the rise of Russia's tions, it is possible to look to the new civil society-indeed, were it American experience for instruc­ tion. In so doing, I am not simply not for many of the individuals in proposing that we use American Russia's new think tanks, "Russian think tanks as a model for civil society" might still be an oxy­ Russians to copy. Rather, knowing moron. The history of these insti­ the problems and strengths of tutions is crucial to understanding thinK tanks in America will allow their potential role in contempo­ Russian researchers to better un­ rary Russian reform and the derstand what to avoid as well as what to emulate. To achieve this growth and influence of Russia's end, my study first defines the "third sector." These think tanks concept of a "think tank" and de­ have the potential not merely to scribes those issues critical to their serve as information centers for function in America. I then examine government policy, but to provide the evolution of several think the intellectual resources needed tanks in Russia. Finally, I conclude for well-informed, independent with several proposals as to how civic action. think tanks can contribute to the growth of enlightened pluralism Although most commentators in a new, democratic Russia. focus exclusively on the concerns of government policymakers, the truth of the matter is that the Think Tanks in America: foundation for stability in Russia Definitions and Issues can be found only in a strong, en­ Although the phrase "think lightened civil society. Without it, tank" has its origins in British democratic reformers in govern­ slang, the institutions we know ment will face strong resistance today as "think tanks" have a dis­ from a populace suspicious of tinctly American origin, with change. Likewise, a civil society roots extending as far back as the ill-equipped for the task of de­ mid-nineteenth century.1 A for­ mocracy building may actually eign observer is likely to assume contribute to the reestablishment that the definition and phenome­ of totalitarian rule. In focusing on non of think tanks is dearly and civil society, I am choosing a very widely understood in the United

1. James Smith, The Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the New Policy Elite (New York: Free Press, 1991), 241, note 3.

Belyaeva 11 States, since it is an American American think tanks nor­ term. Indeed, think tanks have in­ mally exhibit a mixture of the creased so rapidly in number, be­ aforementioned functions in dif­ come so deeply involved in policy fering proportions, with research and public discourse, and are now being the one essential function so well established financially that without which it would be impos­ it is practically impossible to con­ sible to call an institution a think ceive of political life in the United tank. The absence or presence of States without them. It seems that this central function can therefore their role in American social life be used as an identifier. In other and political decision making words, the research function must should leave little doubt about be essential to the purpose and their identity, functions, and defi­ function of the organization. This nition. does not mean that every organi­ At the same time, however, it zation that carries out some re­ is rather surprising to learn that a search is a think tank. For foreign observer's initial assump­ example, the League of Women tions may very well be wrong. In­ Voters conducts a certain amount deed, little, if any, agreement, of research that helps fulfill its exists among researchers and in­ goals, but the absence of research stitutions about the definition of would not mean its end as an or­ just what a think tank is, let alone ganization, since the League its proper functions. As several would continue its educational and advocacy functions at the scholars have pointed out, the grass roots level, nor would it af­ prime difficulty in defining these fect research conducted by other institutions centers on the core institutions. As concerns research­ functions that think tanks perform type advocacy groups (for example, (or are supposed to perform) and Ralph Nader's consumer groups, the ultimate contributions they the Sierra Club, or trade unions), make. Before think tanks really research (;ldds to their effective­ appeared on the scene (in the ness, but does not constitute the 1950s), the functions they cur­ essential purpose of their exist­ rently fulfill-research, education, ence. "brainstorming," advocacy-were In some cases it is difficult to performed by a variety of other distinguish the nature of the insti­ organizations, such as universi­ tution doing purposeful research, ties, lobbying or advocacy groups, on the one hand, and "intellectual and the military. As American lobbying," on the other, because think tanks emerged, they tended both research and advocacy are to combine and carry out these significant parts of an institution's functions in a new kind of institu­ activities. Some advocacy-type tion that would ideally be capable think tanks come very close to-the of contributing more effectively to divide. For example, researchers an understanding of important and staff of the American Enter­ social, political, and economic prise Institute (AEI) openly say problems and their possible reso­ that yes, they have ideas, argu­ lution.2 ments, and values that they wish

2. The first use of the phrase "think tank" with its present-day connotation appeared in connection wiili the RAND Corporation and was borrowed from military jargon. See Smith, Idea Brokers, xiii. According to Smith, RAND and "think tank" are virtually synonymous.

12 Belyaeva tion I could find, questioned the ally very successfully, with the status of AEI as a major U.S. think help of a good tax attorney. tank or labelled it an "advocacy ln addition to varying ap­ group," even though its research proaches to advocacy, American clearly advocates the interests of think tanks are also characterized private business, which, after all, by differing structures. One can IS announced in the Institute's divide them into at least three dif­ veryname.3 ferent types: 1) university based; Given this interconnection of 2) government based; and 3) self­ functions, it would not make sufficient non-governmental or­ much sense to attempt to specify ganizations (NGOs). strict proportions or percentages University-based institutions of advocacy versus research in the are not usually involved in direct definition of a think tank. Even if :policy consulting; they follow a majoricy of the institutional en­ their own research agendas in ergies of, for example, the Heri­ policy studies, usually pursuing tage Foundation, are employed in agendas with a broad outlook and the promotion of an ideological educational value. Partially funded agenda, we should not object to it by universities, they alSo apply calling itself a conservative think for grants. A select few have farge tank oecause it conducts a consid­ endowments and do not need to erable amount of research. raise funds every year, such as the Instead of using specific Center for International Affairs at amounts of research as a parameter, Harvard and the Hoover Institution it might be better to compare for Peace and War at Stanford. think tanks to lobbyists and con­ Government-based think tanks sultants. Of course, certain politi­ either are built directly inside cal and legal restrictions that various branches of the govern­ apply to nonprofit think tanks ment or are established by1egisla­ cfo not apply to private corporate tures or executive orsans outside think tankS. Havmg the legal status of official administrative agencies. of a not-for-profit organization, The research agendas of such or­ and often the tax-exempt status of ganizations are usually much a charitable foundation (which is closer to practical political needs; the case with many independent some of their reports are limited think tanks, including AEL RAND, in circulation. Examples include and the Heritage Foundation, al­ the Congressional Research Serv­ lowing them to receive tax-de­ ice of the Library of Congress and ductible "charitable" donations), the United States Institute of think tanks are limited by law Peace. from lobbying or participating in Self-sufficient NGOs are think elections in support of speCific tanks established and operated as candidates. Yet within such limits nonprofit corporations distinct much flexibility is permitted, even from universities and the govern­ in terms of direct spending for ment. Some have the status of lobbying purposes.4 Those who charities and accordingly must want to teeter on the precipice of follow the requirements that legis­ what is allowed by fhe Internal lation imposes on charitable asso­ Revenue Service may do so, usu- ciations (i.e., public interest, full

3. To learn more about AEI _p_references regarding economic policy, see The AEI Catalogue ofBooks,1992-93 (Washington, D.C.: AEI Press, 1993), 14-28. 4. See, for example, Bob Smucker, The Nan-profit Lobbving Guide: Advocating Your Course and Getting Results (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Pub1ishers, 1991).

Belyaeva 13 nonprofit corporations distinct tion that is created primarily for from universities and the govern­ the purpose of carrying out re­ ment. Some have the status of search in accordance with profes­ charities and accordingly must sional standards, and 2) an insti­ follow the requirements that legis­ tution in which the researchers lation imposes on charitable asso­ examine not only the origin and ciations (i.e., public interest, full nature but, most particularly, the disclosure, independent auditing, possible solutions of a given prob­ etc.). These think tanks can have lem. In other words, they are en­ large endowments or may have to gaged in applied research. raise funds from foundations and These functions are absolutely government grants; they may also crucial and constitute the mini­ work on contract for political mum criteria for defining a think institutions and governmental tank in the traditional, more tech­ organizations. Their research nical sense of the term. What agenda is quite varied, from fo­ should be added, however, are cusing on specific program areas two very important functions that to investigating general interna­ have developed recently and are tional research subjects. Examples becoming more frequent. These include the Center for Strategic functions are: 1) generating analy­ and International Studies (CSIS) sis and understanding as a basis and the American Enterprise for improving economic, political, Institute (AEI). and social policy problems; and Given the variety of structures 2) "public brainstorming," or cre­ and agendas, it may well be im­ ating an open environment for possible to elaborate a strict defi­ highly professional public debate, nition of a "think tank" on which involving government officials, everyone can agree. In fact, think academics, practicing experts, tanks are flexible and mobile so­ parliamentarians, civil institution cial institutions, which often de­ leaders, and the media. pend on public demand or the The Hoover Institution and need for an intellectual response the Brookings Institution substitute to urgent problems. This flexibil­ the first function-generating ity requires them to continually ideas which are generally applica­ refocus themselves, from the values ble to future policy-making-for and principles of their research the function of direct problem agenda to their political values solving. This type of research and relations witfi their financial would normally come to the point patrons and clients, as well as to of "what is to be done," ancf rep­ the interests of the general public resents precisely that type of re­ as a whole. They are highly com­ search usually avo1aed by plex organizations whose essence universities and academic re­ cannot be adequately captured by search institutes (i.e., academic­ a narrow definition. Instead, one type think tanks), organizations should resist the temptation to that do not usually like to be in­ measure precisely whether a re­ volved in direct policy-making. search organization fits or does Yet by generating iaeas for public not fit a set of criteria. policy such as how the tax system It will suffice merely to come should be organized or small up with a descriptive definition business encouraged, these insti­ that reflects the general charac­ tutes maintain a very important teristics these organizations share. difference between pure academic Thus, a think tank is: 1) an institu- research and the research of think 14 Belyaeva tanks. The knowledge produced wide variety of interests and mak­ by the latter-intended for policy­ ing sizable contributions to policy makers-should also be afplicable analysis and political discourse, to society at large, even i only in American think tanks help foster the future. the informed debate necessary for The second additional func­ maintaining a healthy democracy. tion-open public debate includ­ There is also the undeniable ing top-railking governmental fact that think tanks have had a authorities-is a ''house specialty'' profound impact on the way in of Washington-based institutions which government itself evaluates that organize (and publish the :r;e­ its programs and plans future ac­ sults of) numerous fora, hearings, tivities. The first example of this seminars, and joint bipartisan re­ impact was the introduction in the search groups with members of Pentagon and the Department of Con~ss and government offi­ Defense, in 1961, of new, empiri­ cials. cally based techniques of formal As the breadth of their scope policy analysis, techniques that indicates, then, think tanks are far Robert McNamara and Charles from a monolithic institution­ Hitch brought with them from the they have different ideological RAND Corporation.6 After con­ agendas, approaches to advocacy, tributing to the increased account­ research methods, and structures. ability of government, this deve­ This intrinsic flexibility highlights lopment led to fundamental the extent to which think tanks changes in the nature and basis of themselves reflect the pluralistic public discourse-politicians of culture of civil society in the all stripes carne to increasingly United States. This diversity, I be­ rely on technical expertise and lieve, is a major reason that think analysis to buttress their argu­ tanks have come to play such a ments for and against various significant role in American politi­ policies. cal life. They provide avenues for Of course, to be useful to par­ vibrant scholarly debate among a tisan politicians, the data and broad range of opinions, and do analysis supplied by think tanks so in a way that creates room for must at least appear to conform to both the present-minded policy prevailing professional research advocates and those interested standards. This is not to say, how­ primarily in longer-term issues. ever, that researchers, or institu­ This flexibility also provides op­ tions conducting research always, portunities for those outside the or even frequently, seek to clothe prevailing spheres of influence to ideology in the robes of science establish intellectual frameworks (indeed, most of them avoid di­ for intelligent, informed opposi­ rect involvement). Rather, it tion, as evidenced by the work of means that politicians increas­ the Progressive Policy Institute ingly use the findings of think before President Clinton's elec­ tank researchers to justify their tion. By serving an extremely positions. On the other hand, the

5. See, for example, Strengthening of America Commission, First Report, Senator Sam Nunn and Senator Pete Domenici, Cochairmen (Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1992). 6. Edward C. Banfield, "Policy Science as Metaphysical Madness," in Robert A Goldwin, ed., Bureaucrats, Policy Analysts, Statesmen: Who Leads? (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1980), 7-8.

Belyaeva 15 mands for policy and program science into political debate-their analysis. This at least partly ex­ strict division along precise lines plains the growth of policy­ of academic disciplines has oriented think tanks whose "helped to fragment public dis­ primary research focus is on course and make it arcane and in­ pressing social and political prob­ timidating."7 Even those ordinary lems, and the efficacy of efforts to citizens who venture farther into address such problems. the waters of policy analysis soon The influence of think tanks in find themselves overwhelmed by American society is not free from the flood of experts claiming ex­ problems, however. One of the pertise on a plethora of specific is­ more apparent concerns is the ex­ sues. Just as often, even state and tent to which their pluralism municipal public officials feel un­ manifests the extreme specializa­ qualified to implement the policy tion of researchers in American recommendations of the intellec­ institutions. This has contributed tual elite-or are unimpressed by to concerns that contemporary such studies, which are often ir­ American researchers suffer from relevant to the realities of the situ­ an inability, as the saying goes, to ation. see the forest for the trees. Perhaps Think tanks occupy a similarly the most telling example of this is ambiguous position vis-a-vis the the inability of policy experts to media. Members of the academic perceive the imminent colfapse, or community-both in universities even the most profound weak­ and think tanks-regularly ap­ nesses, of communist power in pear on the evening news, "news the Soviet Union. magazine" shows, and public af­ Today, this problem continues fairs programs. A few fortunate to manifest itself in a number of bookS from think tanks or written ways within the scholarly com­ by think tank researchers have be­ munity. For example, one can ob­ come best-sellers, and university serve the reluctance of scholars professors and government officials who are experts in, say, the study take ideas from think tanks and of social organization, to com­ transmit them to the public via ment on another field such as po­ the print media and the airwaves. litical theory. Separate conferences, Yet, as Smith notes in his book separate specialized journals, sepa­ (and I share his concern), the ten­ rate proiessional organizations, dency of both think tanks and the separate personal networks-given media to market information has the lack of overall perspective considerably gutted the intellec­ such division entails, we cannot tual content of the information be sure that there is not another made available.8 Subtlety of anal­ Soviet-type problem waiting in ysis is lost in the quest for the po­ the wings. litically charged sound bite and This proclivity toward spe­ the easy-sell quick fix; even such a cialization has also had a pro­ thoughtful snow as "Nightline" found effect on political debate. compresses complex issues into As James Smith has observed, the twenty-three minutes (subtracting increased number of experts has commercials) of images and quick not only led to the incorporation interviews. This has had signifi­ of the norms of professional social cant implications for the conduct

7. Smith, Idea Brokers, 237. 8. Ibid. 16 Belyaeva of elections, the type of officials fact, their opposition to Commu­ Americans are electing, and the nist power played a significant nature of public debate. The irony role in its undoing and sparked a is that even as intellectuals have movement toward closer interac­ become a presence in the media, tion between experts and the gov­ well-informed political debate is ernment. Yet, once again, the in danger of becoming the special­ Russian intelligentsia find them­ ized province of the politician and selves in the midst of tension, the policy expert. caused this time by attempts of The specialized professional­ the government and commercial ism of American research institu­ sectors to establish research insti­ tions, then, proves to be a tutions under their control and double-edged sword, simultane­ the simultaneous attempts of an ously providing the knowledge entirely new breed of analyst to necessary for informed pubfic establish a network of inde­ debate and policy-making while pendent intellectual centers. This moving democratic dialogue to­ movement toward the develop­ ward an exclusive circle of re­ ment of independent think tanks searchers, politicians, specialized in Russia is unprecedented in the interests, and pundits. In this re­ country's history and, given dec­ spect the American model pro­ ades of authoritarian rule, stands vides both positive and negative to be a crucial factor in educating examples. both policymakers and the public in the norms of rational, demo­ Setting the Goal: cratic public debate. Civil Society in Russia This new tension within the and. the Role of Think Tanks ranks of the Russian intelligentsia As in America, albeit perhaps has its roots in the origin of the for different reasons, Russia's in­ new independent research move­ tellectual elite has perennially ment. Since the beginning of de­ occupied an ambiguous position mocratization in Russia, the in society. It possess the resources state's huge ideological machine for effecting great social change, has been collapsing and with it, but has repeatedly found itself the "scientific" centers that unable to bring it about. As a re­ worked primarily for propaganda sult, members of this elite have purposes. After their major traditionally suffered from a gnaw­ client for generating ideological ing sense of inadequacy. The support-the Communist Party of problems they have faced are the Soviet Union-was gone, complex-the bureaucratic nature thousands of Communist Party of power intrinsic to administer­ and Komsomol schools, institu­ ing the vast expanse of Russia's tions, and departments were left territory, the country's staunch without guidance and basically traditionalism and resistance to lost their orientation. From aca­ modernization, and the intellec­ demic and scientific centers to de­ tual elite's traditional estrange­ partments of Marxism and ment from the centers of political Leninism, all the old structures power-have all contributed to had to find a new identity. the feeling of impotence among This touched not only institu­ Russian intellectuals. tions but also people. A huge In recent years, intellectuals' army of social scientists and paid traditional alienation from the po­ party ideological workers, total­ litical realm has been lessening. In ing about one million people, Belyaeva 17 Their options: to link up with the democratic movement in Russia new authorities, whatever the ide­ by providing true information, ology of the latter; or to work in­ free from ideology and official dependently, looking for new control, about events in the USSR. ideas, new markets, new clients, It would be impossible to de­ based on the social necessity for scribe here all of the new inde­ political and social knowledge. pendent organizations. Among Beginning in 1989, then, and spe­ the more noteworthy was cifically after the failure of the Vyacheslav Igrunov's Moscow coup in August 1991, a rapid Bureau of Information Exchange, process of reorganization of the which accumulated documents, whole system of social sciences publications, and descriptions of began in Russia. events from all of the alternative Within this process of reor­ movements emerging throughout ganization we can see three major the country that were willing to trends: 1) the requalification of the exchange information with each former staffs of communist insti­ other. Another important organi­ tutions, 2) the renaming of old zation was the Postfactum News Communist Party structures into Agency, which had its beginnings political science centers, and 3) the as a provider of information to establishment of entirely new nascent businesses, cooperatives, centers, independent of govern­ and individual entrepreneurs. Be­ ment supervision. fore it expanded into the full-scale Although the process of devel­ news service it has become today, oping independent research insti­ it specialized in providing infor­ tutions in Russia is new-hardly mation on current rules and regu­ three to four years old-it is al­ lations, as well as helping workers ready possible to say that there and clients through the very first have been several distinct periods steps of building market relations of growth. The first spanned the in the country. Other important beginning of the government's groups include the Federation of democratic sloganeering from the Alternative Information, Interfax mid-1980s to August 1991. In this (a government service), and the ·period, when the official communist Old Union. Social-Political Club. system was still strong enough to In addition to formal organi­ keep at least formal control over zations, there were also plenty of ideological institutions, there was groups at academic centers that a very clear division between official informally got together to discuss and non-official research centers problems of economic and political in the social sciences. Official cen­ aevelopment. Numerous small ters were built within official groups of sociologists in Russia's academies of sciences and other major cities, including Moscow, governmental structures (e.g., Leningrad, and Novosibirsk, laid ministries) with the direct or indi­ the foundation for some of the re­ rect support, approval, or at least forms we see today. Working recognition of llie authorities and among these sociologists were, for Party structures. Developing in­ example, Gaidar, Chubais, Kar­ dependently were mostly infor­ donskii, Vasileev, and Levin, who, mal groups and research centers together with others, formed the that emerged as an alternative to nucleus of the first government­ official political science. These al­ sponsored analytical center, ternative information centers Gaidar's Russian Center for Eco­ made it their goal to support the nomic Reform. After August 1991, 18 Belyaeva the situation changed dramati­ government to perform in-depth cally. The Communist Party of the analytical studies. Additionally, Soviet Union and governmental based on the huge demand for structures were no longer able to clear, specialized analysis, new re­ provide support or ideological search centers were formed on the guidance to such centers. On the initiative or with the participation other hand, after Russia moved of the new power structures, in­ toward an overtly democratic sys­ cluding state officials and combi­ tem, cooperation with official nations of government and state organs was no longer per­ commercial structures, such as: ceived as immoral, unethlcaf, or • RF Politika, mostly linked to violating the norms of inde­ Yeltsin advisor Gennadii pendence. This explains why, Burbulis and the radical right after the coup's failure in democratic wing of the Russian autumn 1991, a proliferation of government and Parliament; new intellectual structures openly formed themselves into legafbod­ • The International Foundation ies. for Social and Economic Re­ This process could be called search "Reforma," organized the second stage of the develop­ by Shatalin, an expert insti­ ment of these independent struc­ tute of Russian industrialists tures, and it, too, displayed and entrepreneurs pursuing certain trends. Old Communist the ideology of state enter­ Party centers working directly un­ prises facing market reform; der communist auspices did not want to use unpopular names in • The "Parliamentary Center," their titles, but possessed numer­ an organization performing a function similar to that of ous assets-buildings, salaries, the Congressional Research and enough money to survive the Service in the United States. intermediary period. One after another, they proclaimed their le­ The third period in the devel­ gal and ideological independence opment of inaependent research and reappeared in the analytical centers was the formation of inde­ environment with new names, pendent political expertise, together calling themselves political sci­ with intellectual centers which ence centers. Their intention was recognized the importance of to explain, according to their quality control in research. This point of view, what had really latest phase had its beginning in happened with democratization the spring and summer of 1992. and perestroika. They were also One of the reasons for its develop­ quite willing to sell these observa­ ment was that by that time, many tions to the west, which was hungry independent centers were re­ for any information it could ob­ lievea from feeling obliged to tain and not always very selective support anything crone by the about the source. new government paintea in At the same time, independent democratic slogans. As a result, organizations formed during the most of these centers became in­ early perestroika period received dependent not only of the old their second wind. Free from be­ privileges of official academia but ing compromised or hindered by also of the new ideologies, once official Party structures, a number nonofficial, but now considered of these centers were specifically official and exclusively true. contracted by the new democratic Moreover, after having experi- Belyaeva 19 enced an extended period of inde­ AsPEC asserted: "Professionalism pendent development, many re­ cannot be left or right, socialist or searchers realized that they were liberal... It should always and eve­ working in the same field. Recog­ rywhere be professional, built not nizing each other by the quality of on emotions but on knowledge. their work, they felt the necessity Researchers, scientists, and ex­ of cooperating with one another perts cannot and should not be­ and strengthening their work by long to any party-they can nurturing professional standards definitely have sympathies, but of research and analysis. they cannot be propagandists. The first step in this coopera­ Their professional duty is to sup­ tion was the creation in October port qualified politicians with 1991 of the Association for Collec­ constructive programs and high tion and Research of the New ethical standards, regardless of Press. This organization consisted their party membership, ideology, of several important groups: V. or religion." Igrunov's Institute for Humanities For a year, AsPEC continued and Political Research, N. to work as a professional club and Krotov' s Institute of Mass Political engaged in constant brainstorm­ Movements, the Russian Bibliog­ ing. It did not, however, manage raphic Society (A. Petrik), the to build a formal association and Archive of the Independent Press in all likelihood it will continue to (A. Suetnov), and the Library function as a working group for N.I.P.Ts. "Memorial" (B. Belenkin). discussions among informed ana­ Next followed an agreement on lysts. In so doing, it has played an cooperation between the institutes important role in providing a of Igrunov, Satarov, Krotov, and structure for the expert and ana­ the Interlegal Research Center lytical environment where all (headed by this author). In January sorts of ideas could be discussed, 1992, the association published verified, and endorsed. The most the bulletin News of Humanitarian creative ideas crucial to Russia's Research, which explained in detail current development are being their professional credo. discussed in this forum; in fact, At the same time, this network the uncertainty and rapidity of of information and research cen­ political change in Russia demand ters was developing, a network of that its structure remain informal. analytical and expert consulting In the fall of 1992, inde­ groups also arose. In December pendent research centers and ex­ 1991, experts from a number of pert analytical centers fell into such organizations published a two general pools of organiza­ series of documents culminating tions: 1) Interlegal, INDEM, the in the creation of the intellectual Institute for Humanities and "pool" called the Forum for the Political Research, the Institute of Future of Russia, an association of Mass Political Movements, and approximately forty philosophers, the analytical group Twentieth political scientists, and economists Century and the World; and 2) the (all between the ages of twenty­ network of organizations in AsPEC: five and thirty-five) in Moscow. A the Russian Institute, the Institute still more profound stage in this of Development, the institute of I. evolution was the formation of Sundiev, S. Markov's seminar, and the Russian Association of Politi­ the Parliamentary faction called cal Experts and Consultants (AsPEC) "Change-The New Policy." An on 13 March 1992. In its charter, agreement among these pools ere- 20 Belyaeva ated an intellectual "corporation" the USA and Canada, or by secret in November-December 1992 research institutions using closed with five signatories: Interlegal, information resources such as the INDEM, the Institute of Humani­ KGB. The collapse of the USSR ties and Political Research, the "Union government" destroyed Russian Institute, and the analyti­ the role of academia as the chief cal center of Twentieth Century and consultative body for the top po­ the World. In February 1993, the litical elite. Most of the former members of the corporation en­ academicians involved with old­ tered into a joint research project, guard politicians subsequently lost "Political Pluralism in Russia," their political influence and were the result of which is projected to unable to provide new concepts be a series of monographs, scien­ for future developments. Moreover, tific reports, and articles concern­ government analysts and those ing the problems of establishing a politicians affiliated with the gov­ multiparty political system, par­ ernment-such as Shevardnadze, liamentarism, federalism, a free Yakovlev, and Iavlinskii--could press, etc. not return to the old academic As things currently stand, in­ community and joined the new dependent research centers are environment of self-supported in­ beginning to explore the variety tellectual centers. As fu.e demand of options open to them as they for political expertise increased and separate themselves from official traditional academia, due to its power structures. The influence of bureaucratic structure and weak these groups, both within and financial position, failed to re­ outside the new "intellectual cor­ spond, independent research cen­ poration," cannot be underesti­ ters increased in number and mated. No political discussion, no visibility, attracting talented social television snow on political issues, researchers from academia as well no parliamentary debate or argu­ as analytically inclined politicians. ments in legislative committees As in America, the growth of take place today without using independent research centers has the information and conclusions resulted in their having direct in­ of various independent research fluence on decision-making bod­ centers, which provide sociologi­ ies in the countries of the cal data, fublic opinion polls, and Commonwealth, for the simple ratings o key po1iticalleaders, as reason that the country's new well as in-depth analyses of the politicians do not have other reli­ economic and political develop­ able resources to whom they can ment of specific regions, social turn for information and consult­ strata, national constituencies, and ing. The best example of this phe­ so on. Some of the centers work nomenon was the economic publicly and openlY- whereas oth­ group within Yeltsin' s cabinet ers are hidden within executive known as the "Gaidar team," power structures. which became fully responsible The continually growing influ­ for the strategy of economic re­ ence of think tanks in Russia in form. This [articular group large part derives from the failure quickly forme one of the very of the country's elite communist first independent think tanks: the infrastructure. Prior to the perestroika International Center for Reform. era, political research was pro­ Although such direct involve­ vided mostly by official academic ment can have positive effects, the institutions such as the Institute of worrying point is that such centers Belyaeva 21 or teams, unknown not only to especially in the more outlying the public but also to the profes­ areas where little or no tradition sional community, can become of academic involvement in gov­ directly responsible for political ernment exists? The newly cre­ decisions. Lacking expertise and ated independent research centers the benefits derived- from in­ tend to be concentrated in urban formed discussion, these groups areas, where liberal influence is can make disastrous choices on stronger. Other than brief appear­ issues of interrepublican relations ances in the media, it is difficult to that will affect the lives of hun­ say what means exist for dissemi­ dreds of thousands of peo.r'le. One nating policy studies throughout such example was Yeltsin s decree the country's infrastructure or establishing a state of emergency even whether, once local officials in Chechen'ia. When Russian mili­ receive a think tank's recommen­ tia troops were introduced and dations, such advice would be then withdrawn from Groznii, followed. Russian-Chechen relations ap­ 1his microlevel problem proached the brink of real war. points to another equally impor­ Only by sheer luck were violence tant consideration: t11.e attitude of and bloodshed avoided. research and policy centers When later discussed in towards Russia's fledgling civil Parliament, Yeltsin's decree was society. The involvement of called "a mistake," a decision numerous former independent made because of ''bad advisors." journalists and activists who pri­ As general instability grows, how­ marily concerned themselves with ever, so does the danger of further disseminating information out­ "mistakes." Accordingly, the need side circles of political power dur­ to establish some rules of the ing the Communist era, has game for political advisors be­ fostered an overt interest in comes imperative in order that directly serving the populace in peace and stability in the country new independent research cen­ Will not totally depend on ters. The small size of new intel­ whether their recommendations lectual circles helps to make the are "good" or ''bad." 1his need dissemination of think tank re­ for rules of the game is made search quite direct; for example, more urgent by the fact that the the "intellectual corporation" power structures in all the links research institutes with Post­ Commonwealth republics gener­ factum, an information agency ally, and within Russia specifi­ akin to AP or UPI, but that also cally, are split into numerous disseminates in-depth research re­ factions; eacfi of the power struc­ ports. Likewise, lnterlegal serves tures, even each visible politician, as a direct link to the nonprofit now has its own consulting team, community, through both per­ whose analysis, forecasts, and sonal consultations and research concepts could be used in the cur­ publications. (It also coordinated rent political struggle for the an extensive voter information benefit of the ''buyer," regardless program during the 1993 elec­ of their effect on the rest ofsociety. tions, including panel discussions, On the other hand, at a more free individuaf consultations, tele­ local level, think tanks face the op­ vision spots, and the distribution posite problem: how can their re­ of voter information pamphlets.) search influence policy on the Think tank researcllers also level of cities, towns, and villages, have direct personal ties to the 22 Belyaeva print and electronic media. They lack of funds. For example, the frequently write policy articles for Gorbachev Foundation had sub­ popular newspapers such as stantial capital at its inception, but Nezavisimaia Gazeta, Segodnia, and was never able to accumulate a Izvestiia. Experts also regularly productive research team. On the provide opinions on television other hand, one of the best think and radio news and public opin­ tanks in Russia today, Igrunov's ion programs. Much as in the Institute of Humanities and Poli­ United States, various experts tical Research, is barely able to regularly present certain partisan provide salaries at the minimum points of view; by contrast, much level established by the govern­ of the Russian media does not ment, but its staff members con­ hold to contemporary American tinue to work there because they standards of objectivity, allowing value the work itself and each Russian newspapers the freedom other as a collective. The force of to more openly espouse particular such bonds are made more evi­ points of view. This division along dent by the fact that such scholars partisan lines has fostered a prob­ are choosing to pursue research at lem similar to that of American a time when the lack of funds is punditry-namely, the use of ex­ spurring many intellectuals to perts to provide convenient abandon scholarship for better­ quotes to support various party paying jobs as businessmen, taxi lines. drivers, or even janitors. The partisan nature of com­ Russia's independent research mentary in the media reflects the culture, then, is a vibrant, plural­ broader plurality of contemporary istic movement that represents Russian think tanks. Although both new and old intellectual some aspire to unite under an trends. It faces severe financial overtly nonpartisan umbrella, in­ problems and the temptations dependent research institutions that arise from immediate access tal

9. See the Directories of Public Associations Registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (Moscow: Interlegal Research Center, 1992-93), four issues.

26 Belyaeva enced and educated themselves, openly discussed, and confirmed they are able to share their practi­ by more than one source. It is cal knowledge with others. clear that this can be done only by This illustrates how knowl­ professionally equipped and edge is being accumulated and qualified institutions that do noth­ shared in Russian society by civil ing but monitor those processes in structures themselves, growing society that they study. Only then from the bottom up. But I would would they be able to make a like to approach the issue of comprehensive picture out of the equipping civil society with nec­ pieces and provide an overall per­ essary knowledge from the other spective on the interconnection of end, from the top down. In Rus­ its components. This perspective sia, I believe it is important that could provide an approach to un­ think tanks devote considerable derstanding the subject that social effort to making knowledge that actors could later transfer into has been accumulated at the short-term goals and a plan of ac­ "top" available to all who need it tion. at the ''bottom." This might well seem compli­ Specially established, equipped, cated, but we are living in a com­ and significantly funded, think plex world; oversimp1ifying the tanks are professional institutions strategy and tactics of social work for the gathering and analysis of to the famous concept of "small research data relating to social steps," we often confine civic problems, including health, the groups to taking steps in one spot environment, child care, and un­ or going nowhere. It is my belief employment-this is exactly how that only serious social knowl­ civic groups might envision think edge provided by professional in­ tanks. Yet these institutions mostly stitutions will provide civic provide their services and re­ groups and other public struc­ search results in an "upward" tures adequate tools for serious direction-to government struc­ participation in the dialogue with tures-and thus special efforts power. Otherwise, governance must be made to redistribute this will always come down to the un­ knowledge back to the community equal and unfair struggle between level and the grass roots. those who know and those who Here I want to specify that do not. In Russia, where democ­ knowledge does not mean simple racy is in its delicate infancy, this information-the raw statistical could be disastrous. data, columns of figures, or Professionalism, government, unique and astonishing facts and civil society-think tanks in events accompanied by brief Russia face a large task, but only commentaries of distinguished because their potential for helping politicians or journalists that pass the country is equally vast. for "information." Likewise, I do By serving as bridges between not mean the smmd bites and state and society, Russian think quick images that have become tanks can provide various civil commonplace in America and institutions-the government Russia. By knowledge, I mean the itself, mass movements, profes­ result of analysis and answers to sional and communal associa­ specific questions-a result pro­ tions, political parties, and public duced on the basis of specially interest groups-with the neces­ collected and processed data that sary knowledge, expertise, so­ was professionally checked, ciopolitical techniques, and other Belyaeva 27 intellectual tools to participate If think tanks can fulfill this effectively in the diafogue with role even halfway, they will have power and with one another, made a very significant contribu­ to find compromises, and to pro­ tion to Russian democratic devel­ tect their interests in nonvio1ent opment. ways.

28 Belyaeva ADDENDUM: INTERVIEW WITH GEORGY SATAROV

GeorJl:Y Satarov is the director of IN­ tions by providing them with DEM-(INformpJics fo! DEMocrq0J), a clear, objective, and interdiscipli­ center of apP.lied political studies in nary analysis. Moscow and the author of another paper in this collection. Dr. Satarov BELYAEVA: An independent center was appointed Assistant to Russian is unthinkable without a team. President Boris Yeltsin on Parliamen­ How did vou find and recruit tary and Public Ors!anizations Matters your "crewt,? on 7 February_ 19'94. This interview SATAROV: The crew was selected was conductea btt Nina Belyaeva on by two major parameters: a very 28 February 1994. high standard of professionalism BELYAEVA: It is difficult to believe and a willingt1ess and ability to that some time ago we did not work with ftill devotion, yet not even have independent research in the most comfortable circum­ centers. Today it seems that such stances. The working collective centers have always existed. was filled by matfiematicians, When did this idea first come to computer programmers, political you? What was your first, initial analysts, and sociologists. Most of motivation when you decided to the people we began with are still create INDEM? witfi us. SATAROV: Motivation is probably a BELYAEVA: A traditional but inevi­ key word here. You, too, remem­ table question: what are your ber this time, 1989-90, when so funding sources? much was happening, and it was SATAROV: We have several. The so natural to try something by biggest source, one that is gradu­ yourself, to do something on your alfy disappearing, is donations. own. Since I have always been in­ We receive some funds from our volved in science and studies, to joint rrograms and projects con­ be "on your own" meant to create ducted with other Russian and an independent research center. foreign partners, for example, a My motive was very simple: per­ research project with a bank and sonal curiosity, based on individ­ an education program with the ual research interest as well as on National Democratic Institute of the normal curiosity of a citizen, the USA. Funding for specially re­ about the variants of the develop­ quested research projects, includ­ ments. ing those from governmental BELYAEVA: How was the initial organs, has recently increased. goal of the center formulated, and Another growing source is income has your mission changed from the computer-programming through the years? products that we create m the cen­ ter and sell. I should also mention SATAROV: The major goal was to a grant that we received from use the huge research potential of Stailford University (for comput­ highly qualified specialists a_rpro­ ers, which are still in use). priately, to utilize their abilities to implement the most advanced sci­ BELYAEVA: Who are the major us­ entific methods, because in tradi­ ers of your research products? tional academic science this What type of relations do you potential was often wasted. The have wfth your clients? other goal was to help in the crea­ SATAROV: The most popular ar­ tion of new democratic institu- rangement we have with our cli- Belyaeva 29 ents and partners is a joint activity pendence:" is it really possible? agreement. Among official clients What does "independence" and buyers of our products, the mean? largest group consists of foreign SATAROV: I believe that no formal users, most of whom are researCh qualities can prove the "inde­ fellows, followed second by offi­ pendence" of a research center or cial organs of power, and third by serve as a "certified," doubtless the mass media. Some of the re­ guarantee. Independence can only sults of our work are presented oe "inside" the researchers; it is and distributed by our subscription their strong personal opinion, journal, Russian Monitor: Archives their willingness to keep this in­ of Modern Politics. dependence. For a think tank to BELYAEVA: Being a political re­ bring its proclaimed inde­ search center, does INDEM avoid pendence closer to reality, several commentary on cutting-edge aemands are crucial: a high stand­ issues? Do you give your own ard of professionalism and an ab­ opinion on current politics? How solute observance of the research does your personal opinion influ­ ethics. Also important is diversifi­ ence your final product? cation of the sources of funding; financial dependence on just one SATAROV: We regard _eolitics only as a field of study, as the object of source would make our center our research. It is our principle very vulnerable. that political preferences are not BELYAEVA: Do you already have acceptable in ilie work of the center. partners abroad? Who are they? BELYAEVA: But you will not deny Whom else would you like to es­ that your clients do have a politi­ tablish working contracts with? cal position, possibly a very SATAROV: Yes, we have partners strong one. Do you reject clients abroad: Stanford University, Rupert with specific political positions? Starch, the National Democratic Or, if I can ask the question in a lnstih1te of the USA, Cambridge different way, to what section of University, as well as several the political spectrum do your clients working connections with belong? individual researchers. What is lacking-and what is very regret­ SAIAROV: I want to be very brief here: to all reasonable sections. tabl~are professional relations with other sociological centers. BELYAEVA: And here comes a tricky question, one that is closely BELYAEVA: A final question: how related and may even summarize important is the role of inde­ all the previous questions, one pendent think tanks in contempo­ that is extremely important to all rary Russia? Will this role become of us who are interested in the more important? development of new interdiscipli­ SATAROV: Independent think nary research institutions that tanks are important. Their impor­ strongly influence political deci­ tance is not, probably, on the sur­ sions, but remain formally outside face, but their role is growing. of official power structures. These And our government structures, institutions are often called all branches of power, are finally "independent think tanks." The beginning to recognize this. And question concerns this "inde- this is cause for some optimism.

30 Belyaeva PERIODICITY IN THE SOCIAL MOVEMENT OF THE USSR by Vyacheslav Igrunov he Institute for Humani­ search project and created a data base on new sociopolitical organi- Tties and Political zations in the USSR for the Insti- Research (IHPR) was tute of Culture of the USSR the first nonstate research institute Academy of Sciences. This re- to appear in the USSR during search marked the beginning of perestroika. The Institute was es­ the active participation of M-BIO tablished in 1990 on the basis of members in scientific cooperation the Moscow Public Bureau for In­ with academic institutes in the formation Exchange (M-BIO), USSR, cooperation that took an es- pecially intensive form in joint which served as an information­ projects with the Leningrad (later coordinating center for the first St. Petersburg) branch of the Insti- political clubs and mass social tute of Sociology of the USSR movements in the USSR. (later Russian) Academy of Sci- In 1988-90, M-BIO helped ences. In the West, M-BIO's closest unite the efforts of various liberal associate was the West Ger- democratic organizations and man Forschungsstelle Osteuropa groups, played a significant role in Bremen; Michael Urban of the in disseminating information on University of California at Santa the sociopolitical movement, and Cruz became M-BIO' s permanent created the first system for dis­ U.S. partner. semination of independent peri­ As the social movement in the odicals in the USSR. In 1988-89, USSR continued to evolve, M-BIO made an important contri­ M-BIO's efforts to help establish bution to the establishment of the movement became increas­ Memorial, the most significant ingly anachronistic and pointless. movement of the time. Certain This was one reason behind its work carried out under the aus­ transformation into a research in­ pices of M-BIO helped prepare the stitute-the Institute for Humani­ groundwork for the formation of ties and Political Research. The the Interregional Group within newspaper Panorama broke away the USSR Congress of People's and oecame the foundation for an Deputies. Subsequently, M-BIO informational expert group of the promoted the rise of ecological or­ same name, and M-BIO's daily ganizations, social democratic news service was reborn as the dubs, and other prodemocracy political news service of the groups all over the USSR. Postfactum News Agency. M-BIO published two news­ The Institute for Humanities papers, Chronograph and Panorama, and Political Research focuses and a number of bulletins, includ­ both on the study of contempo­ ing Samizdat. Intensive activity led rary political processes and ques­ to the creation of the first archive tions of a more fundamental of materials relating to the new nature. The Institute does not con­ social movement in the USSR; this sider the study of political proc­ archive subsequently provided a esses and, in particular, social model for many similar collec­ movements to be simply an aca­ tions. Using these materials and demic task and pursues a number its own experience as a partici­ of practical goa1s. Political moni­ pant in this social movement, in toring conducted by the Institute 1988 M-BIO carried out its first re- over the past two years has pro- Igrunov 31 vided unique materials for elabo­ swift, but explosive. Yet by the rating recommendations regard­ time the first political clubs made ing the structure of the Russian their appearance, Soviet society state as well as domestic and for­ remained monolithic only on the eign policy questions. Many min­ surface; internally, it had eroded istries and social organizations of deeply and was split into numer­ the Russian Federation regularly ous segments that were barely use the Institute's materials. Re­ holding together. As the burden of cently, the Institute and Grigorii censorship started to give way in Iavlirlskii's EPicenter have become 1987, official ideology-which the intellectual base for the had been holding the virtually election bloc "Iavlinskii-Boldyrev­ disintegrated society together­ Lukin," and some Institute collapsed at the first tremors of researchers are running for the glasnost', and the parishioners of State Duma. the Communist dl:urch suddenly The desire to participate in po­ found themselves lonely and litical activities primarily derives forsaken. from the fact that researCh results The headlong rush to fill the point to another, almost inevitable resulting vacuum led to a multi­ split in Russian society fraught tude of fragmentary interpreta­ with the risks of dictatorship and tions of history and reality which the breakdown of statehood. Insti­ initially served as a guide for the tute researchers intend to use their formation of a civil society. It was knowledge in an attempt to only the clash of numerous, half­ change tfie current trends of Rus­ sensible points of view on seem­ sia's political development. ingly unrelated problems that led to the emergence of more or less vague meta-ideologies which split ******** society into a numl:Jer of indistinct factions. Each of these factions Among other subjects studied formed itself around a group of by ll-IPR are the social move­ ideologists whose views, al­ ments of the USSR and contempo­ though fairly unstable, were rary Russia. One of the most based on the experience and con­ important aspects of studying cepts of preceding decades. In this these movements is to separate sense, tile "stagnation" era was their history into distinct periods. mother to perestroika. It is for pre­ Of course, any attempt to single cisely this reason that without a out individual periods must be description, however cursory, of somewhat theoretical. Nonethe­ the development of pluralism in less, a concept of periodization the pre-Gorbachev USSR, one facilitates the systematization of a cannot hope to understand the huge mass of materials on the kaleidoscopic spectrum of ideolo­ subject, and this in tum should gies in existence when/erestroika, lead to a deeper understanding of the starting point o Russia's the phenomenon. contemporary political develop­ In this paper I shall dwell on ment, was first launched. one such concept of periodization. Western observers and those who Prewar Totalitarianism plunged themselves into social ac­ tivity in the USSR during the sec­ Strictly speaking, the USSR ond half of the 1980s tended to was not a single-ideology state regard the development of plural­ even during the period of abso­ ism in the USSR as not simply lute totalitarianism. The various 32 Igrunov periods of its history, however, ken down and suppressed; at aiffer one from one another in best, the only thing that remained terms of both the nature and de­ which did not claim to be political velopment of pluralism. The pre­ was memory. Of course, this process war period was a time of political of social homogenization was involution; all structures of civil completed only during the society and all nongovernmental Khrushchev era, but a decisive ideologies were eliminated. Even turning point took place during within the dominant ideology, a the war. process of reduction aimed at di­ In the postwar period, a new minishing the importance of an trend emerged in the develop­ individual person or individual ment of pluralism. Young people groups of people in the life of so­ began to aspire to the improve­ ciety occurred. Horizontal social ment of socialism, either by devel­ links were destroyed and replaced oping concepts put forward by by vertical ones. The chief goal the leader of the people or by con­ was to build a society in which ducting a critical revision of state every person would be reduced to ideology from the standpoint of a screw in a single mechanism. classical Marxism. Resistance came only from those It was during this period that individuals or groups that were the social movement acquired its considered enemies of the regime ideological foundation: in 1956, or its ideology. The absence of reformist aspirations were made opposition turned the subject of legitimate by Khrushchev's "Secret politics into its object-into a victim. It was this phenomenon that oc­ Speech" to the twentieth congress curred in the case of Bukharin, as of the Communist Party of the opposed to those of Trotsky and Soviet Union (CPSU). After this Ryutin. congress, the number of under­ ground Marxist circles sharply in­ World War II to 1964 creased. This, along with tfie first manifestations of relatively wide The Second World War altered public protest (against military in­ social consciousness in the USSR terference in Hungarian affairs, to a large extent. In a certain for example), succeeded in creat­ sense, a line was drawn under the ing a certain area of resistance in revolutionary epoch. Of course, which individual groups obtained revolutionary recurrences took information about other dissi­ place until the death of Stalin, but dents and even established contact these were precisely that, recur­ with one another. rences, whicn were barely toler­ In a totalitarian society, of ated even by those responsible for which the prewar USSR was a implementing the leader's poli­ classic example, the state controls cies. The war made equals of pro­ virtually all spheres of life, includ­ letarians and the Children of ing the everyday life of an indi­ kulaks, descendants of the gentry vidual person. After the war, and the clergy-making them all however, this control gradually defenders of the Motherland. The lessened and, during the 1950s, a monstrous brutality of the repres­ relative freedom of choice in sions made all accept prescribed clothing styles, standards of moral social ritual; the cult of the leader behavior, and creative activities and Communist ideology became became possible. The more distant the common standard of public a sphere of life from the realm of life. All conscious enmity was bro- ideology, the weaker the state's Igrunov 33 control over it became. At the 1964 coup demonstrated the same time, freedom of choice in emergence of new political sub­ everyday life helped cultivate in­ jects, with ramifiea horizontal dependent behavior in an entire links that already influenced the generation of people born in the situation at the very top of the prewar years. state pyramid. No less important, The main feature of this grow­ although much less visible, was ing pluralism was its legality, a the process by which the economic legality with which the state did elite "slipped out" from under not always comply; recall, for in­ tough administrative pressure. stance, the sensational campaigns ThiS process was accompanied by directed against "fops" and attempts to elaborate a new eco­ "parasites" (nonconformist art­ nomic doctrine, attempts that ists). There were also certain legal largely influenced the fOrmation shifts in the ideological sphere: of market concepts in the second the publication of memoirs and half of the 1960s. such books as Not by Bread Alone Evolutionary changes in social by Vladimir Dudintsev and One orgruruzation and outlook had a Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by decisive influence on the character Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the of the social movement in the reading of poems near the monu­ USSR, and revolutionary circles ment to the poet Vladimir Mayak­ were gradually replaced by hu­ ovsky. man rights groups. Even underground activities were not illegaf in the juridical The Human Rights sense. Rather, the behavior of the ~ovemen~1965-1981 state was illegal. Moreoever, a large part of the intelligentsia con­ The year 1965 was a radical sidered ideological criticism of the turning point in the evolution of regime to be legitimate because the social movement. Following such criticism was based on the arrests of Andrei Sinyavsk)' Marxist sources. At the same time, and Iulii Daniel, an entire move­ the opposition, united under the ment formed itself around Larisa name of "true Marxism­ Bogoraz and Pavel Litvinov, the Leninism" (according to Andrei chief goal of which was to make Amal'rik's felicitous wording1), the state comply with its own leg­ retained its orientation toward a islation. ThiS movement had political transformation of society, many sources and centers of for­ at times going so far as to demand mation and was comprised of for­ forcible Change of the existing or­ mer prisoners (of ilie Stalin and der· Khrushchev eras), samizdat poets, A dissolution of the ruling hi­ nonconformist artists, and aca­ erarchy occurred during this same demic intellectuals who had period due to a redistribution grown bolder during the thaw of responsibilities and power. under Khrushchev. A leap from Strictly speaking, the October underground dissidence to an

1. Andrei Amal'rik (1938-1980), author of Involuntary Journey to Siberia, Will the Soviet Union Survive until 1984? and Notes of a Revolutionary, was an outspoken independent thinker who figured prominently in the "democratic movement" of the 1960s. Exiled to a Siberian collective farm in 1965--66, he was sentenced to three (eventually six) years in a Siberian labor camp in 1970, a term that ended in exile in Magadan. Amal'rik emigrated from the USSR in 1976, only to die in a car accident in Spain in 1980.-Ed.

34 Igrunov open resistance to lawlessness movement strongly or swiftly took place. It was the openness of enough (from the viewpoint of the resistance that led to the emer­ preserving stability), a great many gence of samizdat as a phenomenon underground groups began to use of ideological life. Samizoot in tum human rights slogans in their provided a rich environment in struggle against the regime. which the main trends of social The internal heterogeneity of thought that would determine the participants in this movement re­ political development of the mained, however, and with the perestroika period matured. development of samizdat, a pluralist All attempts at dividing history evolution of social thought began. into periods are antihistorical-in New forms of social and political reality, a multitude of relatively consciousness became established independent processes are mov­ as a result of clashes between hu­ ing in different directions. For this man rights ideology and tradi­ reason, boundaries between peri­ tional forms of dissidence such ods of the history of the social as "true Marxism-Leninism," movement in the USSR should be Protestant religions, and national­ regarded simply as markers or ism. By 1970, a dual system of reference points. Although Moscow "democrats and patriots" had experienced a certain turning point become established in Moscow, in 1965, pinpointed most precisely with a complicated spectrum of by the activities of Alexander transitory ideologies described in Volpin and the December 5th detail by Amal' rik. demonstration in Pushkin Square, Since 1965, the USSR's social in general the social movement movement has been dominated throughout the country retained by the Westernized liberal demo­ its revolutionary Marxist charac­ cratic intelligentsia, who from ter. In this regard, we should note 1972 onward identified themselves that the emergence of a new na­ first and foremost as human tionalism also affected the trans­ rights activists. For this reason the formation of Marxist groups. Yet entire movement of 1965-82 is even in Moscow, a large number usually referred to as a human of new protest groups were at the rights movement, although this stage of"true Marxism-Leninism" understanding does not accord until the late 1980s. with the facts. In the first place, Nevertheless, a change took one should note the heterogeneity place and new forms of social pro­ that existed during this period. test turned out to be unexpectedly Whereas the years 1965--69 were efficient. Only a short time passed characterized by a certain ambiva­ (1966-68) before thousands of lence and uniformity, the period people became united in the between 1969 and 1972 saw the Democratic Movement, which formation of all the main trends saw itself as a united whole with that one could conditionally call its own periodicals, its own leaders meta-ideologies. and its own martyrs. The most After 1973, following a short characteristic feature of this move­ crisis in the Democratic Move­ ment was its renunciation of vio­ ment, a western liberal orientation lence and declaration of political closely related to the ideology of goals. The state encountered in human rights became dominant. the Democratic Movement a new The movement's political orienta­ and unknown phenomenon. tion, however, retained "back-to­ When it failed to react to the the-soil" concepts; characteristic Igrunov 35 of this trend was a collection of means did all, or even most, essays entitled Iz-pod glyb (From members of the editorial board beneath the clods of earth). Given and the larger group of people as­ the west's obvious support for sociated with the journal think of proliberal dissidents, the most di­ themselves as advocates of a verse trends in the movement de­ strong state. These two trends did clared that they, too, were not develop significantly, how­ defenders of human rights. This ever, and disappeared from the orientation also helped moderate scene during the general decline direct accusations of anti-Soviet of the movement. activities or nationalism. One may suppose that a lack The clear human rights color­ of alternatives and a feeling of ing resulted in the gradual exclu­ doom played a greater role in the sion of political projects from the dissolution of the social move­ social movement; the disappear­ ment of 1965-82 than did govern­ ance of the term "Democratic ment repression. The same factor Movement" in the second half of largely determined the un­ the 1970s was highly charac­ preparedness of the Soviet intelli­ teristic of this trend. Bogoraz put gentsia for the reforms launched forward a new term, "Resistance by Gorbachev. Movement," which met with sup­ port and understanding from Gorbachev, 1982-1985 many dissidents, yet failed to take root. The explanation of this name Following a series of arrests in was quite simple: we cannot put 1979-82, the human rights move­ forward any positive program, ment virtually disappeared as a but we must oppose viofence and phenomenon, although the level lawlessness. of pluralism in society remained This evolution of the demo­ incomparably higher than before cratic trend in the social move­ the emergence of the movement ment in the USSR led to a renewal in the mid-1960s. Human rights of the importance of political activists from time to time raised groups. On the one hand, the so­ their voices, but the growth of the cialiSt movement became some­ "back-to-the-soil," or native land, what more active. In 1982, a large movement was more important. group of socialists whose evolu­ This growth was latent, however, tion did not fit the mold of the and when Pamiat'2 held its first 1960s and 1970s was arrested in demonstration in Moscow in Moscow. On the other hand, a 1987, the Moscow intelligentsia liberal, strong-state trend began to was shocked. emerge within the social move­ Furthermore, since about 1973, ment itself. Adherents of this a genuine pluralism had been trend discussed the principles, emerging among the thick literary conditions, and opportunities for journals that played an exceed­ transforming ilie communist ingly important role in Soviet state. The journal Poiski (Search) society. The role of journalism be­ was the best-known manifestation came even more important in the of this trend, although by no "dead" season of 1983-86, despite

2. Pamiat' (Memory) was one of the first active "informals" of the perestroika period. An historical-patriotic association dedicated to preserving Russia's cultural heritage, the group attracted many Russian nationalists of various stripes before becoming best known for its extreme chauvinist and anti-Semitic views.-Ed.

36 Igrunov the fact that the liberal trend had perestroika a camouflage, a new largely been squeezed out. showcase of totalitarianism be­ hind which the CPSU was at­ Perestroika, 1986-1988 tempting to deceive the west and carry out a technological rearma­ A new upsurge of the social ment in order to secure the ulti­ movement occurred during mate triumph of totalitarianism perestroika. This movement, how­ throughout the world. The con­ ever, had little in common with cept that the Soviet communist that of the two preceding dec­ system was both stable and, in ades. Whereas dissidents were principle, incapable of reforming trying to break down the rigid itself added to the enormous ideo­ barrier separating frivate life logical barrier that separated the from the sociopolitica sphere and informals from the dissidents and their activities resulted from a prevented the latter from having well-develof'ed heterodoxy, the any substantial influence on the "informals' (as the new social development of the new social movement activists were referred movement in the early stage of to) demonstrated an astonishing 1986-88. infantility. In some regards, this period The primary reason for this in­ was similar to that of 1965-68, fantility was that the CPSU lead­ except that both in society and in ership, convinced of the need to the press, one could feel the pres­ stimulate peoples' activity, had no ence of human rights concepts, an idea of the source of this activity aspiration to do away with the nor the need to change existing "planned" economy, and a lean­ prohibitions on social endeavor. ing toward Western democratic The first step toward increasing values. Representatives of the in­ social activity was the expansion of opportunities for amateur asso­ telligentsia who had official status ciations and, quite unexpected!)!, (the "shestidesiatniki," or people of "pc" enthusiasts' groups and the 1960s) became the first patrons community family clubs found of the informals, fearing for the themselves at the center of new moment to follow the path of in­ political activity in the country. dependent political activity them­ As in the two postwar dec­ selves. Until late 1988, informal ades, the new social movement clubs as well as the then rather was based on its genetic origin in moderate Memorial movement the dominant ideology. Most in­ provided ample opportunity for formals were virtually unaware of the formulation of fairly ambivalent dissidents and had only a weak concepts for the self-development idea of the preceding historical of this same section of the intelli­ period; when they did know gentsia. about dissidents, they treated Of course, publications in the them with susficion and enmity. ever-more liberal press made an The feeling o a basic oneness incomparably greater contribution with the dominant ideology toward the ultimate dissolution of helped inforrnals in their gradwil Soviet society. The dissolution of search for vacant areas in which society proceeded at a much faster they could show their initiative. pace than the development of The great majority of human constructive concepts regarding rights activists (those who re­ its reformation. Icfeas involving mained in the country and re­ some degree of imitation of Euro­ tained their freedom) considered pean society enjoyed the greatest

Igrunov 37 popularity, whereas virtually no gan "the CPSU must go" hadar­ analysis of the condition and ca­ rived. pabilities of Soviet society itself The period 1989-91 was char­ took place. acterized by strong opposition During the entire period of between the CPSU and the demo­ 1986-88, both the social movement crats, weak differentiation within and journalism were dominated both factions, and the support of by unprofessionalism. Professionals the democrats for separatist na­ were either absent or afraid to tionalism, with Russian national­ come out into the open. The intel­ ism pushed to the margins. ligentsia was prepared to protect The August 1991 putsch led to iriformals subJected to repression a shift in paradigms of the social and persecution but, fearing for movement. Although warnings of its status, was reluctant to partici­ the "revenge of the nomenklatura" pate in the activities of these clubs were heard from the newly inde­ and movements. pendent democratic faction, the Character of the movement was Decline of the CPSU, already determined by different 1989-1993 concepts. The disappearance of the The turning point came only CPSU from llie political arena in early 1989, when it became pos­ weakened one of the most sible to block opposition from the important integrating factors of CPSU Central Committee and set democratic meta-ideology. Yet the up the powerful Memorial move­ intensive dissolution of the ment, wmch the Central Committee USSR-related to the disappear­ continued to view as an alterna­ ance of the CPSU-accelerated tive party. From this moment on, the integration of the conservative the elections announced for the Congress of People's Deputies be­ faction, so that the opportunities gan to be taken seriously and the of both groups to influence official intelligentsia began to feel political developments gradually that it was safe to participate in evened out. politics, going on to struggle for By 17 March 1991-that is, by aeputy mandates. In 1989-90, the the time the referendum on the titfe of People's Deputy was the unity of the USSR was held-the most prestigious in the USSR boundary between the opposing During this period, the most parts of the political spectrum had active of the iiiformals merged been very clearly revealed. The with people's deputies who Ftad democratic faction, united within been elected from the official intel­ the framework of the Democratic ligentsia to form the Interregional Russia movement, called on peo­ Deputy Group. Concepts that had ple to voice an unequivocal "no" once been on the frfu.ges of the to the unity of the USSR A no less new social movement now be­ unequivocal "yes" became the came symbols of the new epoch. platform of conservative organi­ Prodemocratic deputies followed zations. However, just one month Sakharov in supporting the after the referendum, at which a Democratic Union's sfogans: greater part of the Russian popu­ abolition of Article 6 of the USSR lation voted in favor of the Union, Constitution and introduction of a the unity of the democratic forces multiparty system. Tricolor flags dissolved. The "People's Accord" were brought into the Congress bloc, formed by three democratic assembly hall. The era of the slo- parties, accused Democratic 38 Igrunov Russia of causing a ''breakdown market freedom), moderately so­ of statehood," by which it meant cialist (stipulating substantial re­ the breakdown of the USSR. strictions on the market), and Until that moment, the party totalitarian (rejecting a market spectrum was, to a certain extent, economy and supporting central­ one-dimensional. The main meas­ ized planning). urement that delimited parties The vertical dimension would within that spectrum was the include three types of attitudes to­ struggle between ideologies ward the problem of territorial (democratic, socialist, national­ borders and the nation-state patriotic, etc.). After the status of Russia. The first presup­ referendum, a geopolitical, or poses utmost support for the self­ "territorial," dimension began to determination of peoples living acquire increasing importance. within Russian territory. It is con­ The tumultuous dissolution of the sistently anti-imperial and does USSR, and the increased likeli­ not make any territorial or political hood of a dissolution of the claims on republics that have ac­ Russian Federation following the quired independence as a result of attempted coup d'etat of August the dissolution of the USSR. The 1991 firought national and territo­ second attitude, support for a rial matters to the forefront of po­ "single and indivisible Russia," is litical life. directed against "dissolving" or A two-dimensional model "dissecting" Russia into inde­ would be most appropriate for pendent state formations, yet does analyzing the spectrum of politi­ not presuppose any struggle for a cal parties in Russia today: one di­ restoration (complete or partial) of mension would represent a the USSR. Proponents of the third party's ideological position as it variant are in favor of the com­ relates to a market economy; the plete or almost complete restora­ other would represent attitudes tion of the USSR. toward resolution of border dis­ This spectrum is undergoing putes and the national-territorial strong pressure from Yeltsin' s cur­ division of Russia. Although this rent policies. The two dimensions two-dimensional model does not are being forged anew into a one­ cover the entire chaotic diversity dimensional opposition as sup­ of party positions, it would never­ porters of moderate reform and theless show their distribution proponents of strong statehood with greater precision than the join together to oppose the gov­ traditional one-dimensional "left­ ernment's "liberalism." Pressure right" scale, which continues to from proponents of strong state­ introduce an unbelievable amount hood is gradually leading to a re­ of confusion into Russian political jection of the radical reforms consciousness. initiated by Gaidar and a greater Imagine the following (highly concern for Russia's state inter­ provisional) mathematical func­ ests. The Yeltsin administration is tion as a guide to the party spec­ intensifying its external political trum of contemporary Russia. The activities and work has begun to horizontal dimension of this table reintegrate the post-Soviet space. would be comprised of the three Contradictions between the ad­ most widespread and ideologi­ ministration and the opposition cally motivated variants of atti­ reached such a degree ofintensity, tudes toward a market economy: however, that by 1993 the only so­ liberal (presupposing absolute lution remaining was for one to Igrunov 39 quit the stage; the problem found have to make a choice between a its solution in the tragic events of long period of authoritarian rule October 1993. Russia is now enter­ or a revival of parliamentarian­ ing a new period when it will ism.

40 Igrunov THE INDEPENDENT SECTOR: FILLING THE GAP BETWEEN ACADEMIC SCIENCE AND POLITICAL PRACTICE by Anatoly Kovler u Academic Science" and into print in tsarist Russia). Al­ the Independent Sector: though Russia's first department A Brief History of political sciences was set up in 1833 (earlier than in many Euro­ ndependent thinking has pean countries or in America), I been in opposition to gov­ truly independent political stud­ ernment from time imme- ies were conducted only at the morial in Russia. It is widely Paris-based Russian Higher known that Aleksandr Radishchev School of Social Sciences, estab­ was persecuted, that Aleksandr lished in 1907. Herzen and Mikhail Bakunin Circles for the political self­ were forced to remain in emigra­ education of narodniki (Russian tion for many years, that Petr populists) and, at a later stage, so­ Chaadayev was declared men­ cial democrats were widespread in Russia in the late nineteenth tally ill, and that Nikolai Chemy­ and early twentieth centuries. It shevskii was exiled. In his was only in such circles that free well-known book The Roots and debate and scientific investigation Meaning of Russian Communism, were possible. The first inde­ the great Russian philosopher pendent publishing houses spe­ Nikolai Berdyaev (who, inciden­ cializing in political literature tally, was himself expelled from (mostly in translation) appeared Russia in 1922) emphasized that after 1905. the Russian intelligentsia has per­ The Bolsheviks who staged the October coup in 1917 were petually been in opposition to worthy successors to the tsarist government: "The Russian intelli­ tradition of suppressing inde­ gentsia has ultimately taken the pendent thinking and, in fact, form of a splinter group. It will went even further than their always speak of itself as 'we' and predecessors. In the first years of of the state, authority, as 'they."'l Soviet government, the Bolsheviks By compromising with the were content "merely" to close authorities and censors to a cer­ down O£position news_rapers and tain degree, historians and phi­ ban ' nonproletarian parties, losophers commanded quite a leaving some leeway for non­ hign position in society and cre­ Marxist scholars and the artistic ated a brilliant cohort of disciples intelligentsia. However, once the and followers. Sociologists and Civil War had ended and the New the fathers of Russian po1itical sci­ Economic Policy was launched in ence were less fortunate. Pitirim 1921, the regime's repressive ideo­ Sorokin was imprisoned, Maxim logical apparatus was strength­ Kovalevskii and Moisei Ostrogorskii ened and the onslaught agamst were forced into long periods of ''bourgeois ideology" began. emigration (the latter's well­ Glavlit, the state censorship body, known work Democracy and Political was set up by a decree of the Soviet Parties was first published in of People's Commissars on 6 July France in 1905, but never made it 1922. Late in 1922, dozens of out- 1. N. A. Berdyaev, The Roots and Meaning of Russian Communism (Paris: YMCA-Press, 1955), 21.

Kovler 41 standing scientists and writers within the Central Committee of were ordered out of the country the Communist Party of the Soviet on the basis of a list drawn up bl Union (CPSU), but also in regional a committee that included Lenin s and even district (in large cities) wife, Nadezhda Krupskaia. With­ party committees. Programs for out waiting for the same fate to research work, teaching pro­ befall them, hundreds of others grams, manuals, and the plans of preferred to emigrate from Soviet publishing houses had to be sanc­ Russia or withdraw from scien­ tioned by Party officials, who tific activity altogether. The Social­ issued "directives" to scholars. ist Academy, the Institute of Red Naturally, there could be no talk Professorial Staff, and the Institute of researchers' independence un­ of Marx and Engels, lavishly fi­ der such conditions. A three-part nanced by the state, took over censorship was at work: political leadership of the "Marxist theo­ censorship, Glavlit, and tne inner retical front."2 self-censorship of an author him­ At the same time, measures self, who avoided writing or were taken to orevent the reading speaking about anything .that of "anti-Sovietn and "anti-Marxist" went beyond the framework of literature; for decades afterward, the general Party line. In this such materials were kept in spe­ way social science was seriously cial archives, access to which was damaged. Temforary or perma­ strictly limited. Academic insti­ nent groups o independent re­ tutes for the "development" of searchers and centers, discussed Marxist theory were also created, below, ventured to repair this among them the Institute of damage after the authorities Philosophy, the Institute of Soviet launcli.ed perestroika (a campaign Construction (subsequently the that, incidentally, retained many Institute of State and Law), and of the attributes of a Party inquisi­ the Institute of History. Old-guard tion). scholars of prerevolutionary sci­ Objectivity requires us to ad­ ence in the Academy of Sciences mit that boili during the 1956-60 were joined by young /ro­ thaw and in the "stagnation" Marxists; the authorities an the years of the Brezhnev era, Soviet Academy management clearly fa­ social science did manage to make vored the latter. Alongside names several breakthroughs in social­ that to this day are the/ride of ow, philosophy, law, and history. Russian science stan those Ftrst and foremost, the informa­ names branded with the mark of tion base of the social sciences was Cain, among them Vyshinskii, expanded. Thanks to petrodollars, Mitin, and Pankratov. foreign scientific literature and pe­ A very rigid hierarchy charac­ riodicals flowed into the country terized the research management in large quantities. There was structure. The Department of Sci­ great demand for the collected re­ ence and Higher School, with its search papers of the Institute of numerous sectors, each of which Scientific Information in the Social supervised the area of science en­ Sciences (INION), papers that ac­ trusted to it, exercised political quainted the Soviet scientific com­ and ideological control over re­ munity with the classics of search in the social sciences. These political thought and contempo­ departments existed not only rary Western thinkers.3 2. S. A. Fediukin, The Struggle with BoJ!!geois Ideology as the Country Switches to New Economic Policy (Moscow: Nauka, 1977), 159.

42 Kovler The Institute of the Interna­ of an adventure noveLS In the tional Workers' Movement and 1960s and 1970s, sociology was re­ the Institute of State and Law of constructed,6 and new scientific the USSR Academy of Sciences fields such as political and po­ led the field in the study of politi­ testarian ethnography, political cal parties and social movements. philosophy, and political psychol­ Altfi.ough most of these works fo­ ogy emerged? cused on political life in Western Works by Soviet authors of countries, the methodology and this period, no matter how am­ scientific apparatus they em­ biguous and modest they might ployed were completely up-to­ seem today, caused a serious date and were subsequently used breach in the thick wall of primi­ to study Russian topics. For in­ tive Marxist-Leninist dogmatism. stance, as a graduate student at Mikhail Bakhtin and Vladislav the Institute of the International Propp (philology), Aleksandr Workers' Movement, I began a Losev (philosophy), L. Gumilev study of the party and election (ethnogeography and the philoso­ systems in France in 1973 using phy of history), and N. Lotman Western methodology; at the edi­ (structural linguistics) achieved in tor's request, I was obliged to their works a seemingly unattain­ clarify in the introduction that the able standard of depth of scientific research was allegedly based on analysis and genuine creative free­ Marxist-Leninist methodology.4 dom, in spite of the official repres­ The acquired skill of exploring sions they suffered. Regrettably, 11 foreign" political life was sub­ sociology and political science sequently required in the study of were less fortunate. Nevertheless, Soviet and Russian problems, yet having worked for several years without the need to quote, albeit as the scientific secretary of the only as a matter of form, the im­ Soviet Association of Political Sci­ mortal classics of Marxism­ ences, I venture to assert that Leninism. The development of groups of independent researchers Soviet political thinking, which who grappled with, among other frequently clashed with the dog­ topics, the problems of political matists of II scientific commu­ power (F. Burlatsky), bureaucracy nism" and Soviet lawyers, is the (M. Makarenko), and political plot for another story, reminiscent psychology and Freudianism 3. The merits of the deceased Nikolai Razumovich need to be recalled here. Razumovich headed the law deparbnent at INION for many years and published dozens of collected works by Western and Russian prerevolutionary autftors. 4. A. I. Kovler, France: Parties and Electors (Moscow: Nauka, 1984). 5. The history of the struggle to legalize Soviet political science begins with F. M. Burlatsky's article "Politics and Science," Pravaa, 10 January 1965. Also see idem, Lenin, State, Politics (Moscow: Nauka, 1970); F. M. Burlatsl

Kovler 43 (V. Roshchin) also formed in this academic science and the inde­ field. Within the association, we pendent sector is becoming in­ formulated problems of democ­ creasingly symbolic in today's racy and political involvement,8 Russia. But first let us try to out­ self-government, and political al­ line the features that make it ~enation and ways of overcoming possible to define methodological It. and ontological specificities of political studies conducted by Criteria for Researchers' these two sectors, using the study Independence of political parties and social The question arises: what are movements as an example. the criteria for establishing the in­ dependence of a researcher and Research into Problems wfiat in this connection can be at­ Faced by Political Parties tributed to the so-called inde­ and Movements pendent sector? There seem to be For many years Soviet science several such criteria: examined public movements from only two points of view: the coop­ • independence from the pre­ eration of public organizations vailiil.g ideology in society with the CPSU in building social­ and frOm rolitical conformism ism and communism (the concept (at issue IS a recognition of the universal principles of of the "faithful helper and reserv­ democracy); ist of the Party") and the organ­ izational and legal forms of • independence from regular, relations between the socialist politically motivated finan­ state and public organizations. 9 If cial contributions; the first point of view was of a to­ tally ideologized nature, the sec­ • complete financial auton­ ond retains its relevancy to this omy and self-government; day; this was confirmed anew • the possibility of pursuing during the drafting of the new research on the basis of one's Russian Constitution. The 1977 own notions of its useful­ Constitution accorded the status ness; of an institute to public organiza­ tions as well as worker collectives. • the independent choice of What had seemed a sheer formal­ partners, including foreign ity against the backdrop of the ab­ ones; and solute power of the CPSU • access to sources of strategic acquired relevance under new and scientific information. conditions. Projects drawn up over many years by theoreti­ Proceeding from the afore­ cians-lawyers in particular­ mentioned criteria, I will go on to came in useful here. Academic argue that the difference oetween science reacted at a snail's pace to 8. A. I. Kovler and V. V. Smirnov, Democracy and Involvement in Politics (Moscow: Nauka, 1986). 9. See A. I. Lukianov and B. M. Lazarev, Soviet State and Public Organizations (Moscow: Nauka, 1961); Ts. A. Iampolskaia, Public Organizations and the Development of Socialist Statehood (Moscow: Nauka, 1972); A. I. Shchiglik, Laws Governing the Formation and Development of Public Organizations in the USSR (Moscow: Nauka, 1967); The Constitutional Status of Public Organizations in the USSR (Moscow: Nauka, 1983); Public Organizations and Bodies of Public Independence (Moscow: Inostrannye gosudarstva, 1985). 44 Kovler the appearance of new public cordance with the principle: "let movements dubbed "informals," the reader work it out for him­ regarding them for a long time as self." variants of existing public bodies. This successful first experi­ Two young sch.olars-Nina ment was followed up and devel­ Belyaeva, who later became the oped by a series of papers founder and director of Interlegal, compiled by scientific centers in a political and legal center, and Moscow and other cities. An am­ Nikolai Fedorov, who eventually bitious project of the Russian­ became a deputy of the USSR American University's Institute Supreme Soviet, where he of Broad-Based Political "pushed through" a Law on Pub- Movements was entitled Russia: lie Associations-were pioneers in Parties, Associations, Unions, and developing theoretical problems Clubs. This multi-volume study of the new public organizations turned out to be a quite detailed that did not fit within. the tradi- reference guide to hundreds of tional scheme of the "transmission Russia's parties and public move­ belts" of the CPSU. ments.ll The flaw of this project Political pluralism was gain- was that it lacked in-depth analy­ ing strength and there arose a sis of political life in Russia and need to assimilate and systematize criteria for the selection of parties a vast amount of contradictory in- and movements included in the formation about new parties and guide. Moreover, such works of movements and to identify the reference rapidly lost their rele­ law-govemed nature of the politi- vance because political life in the cal process under new conditions. country was developing at a An original work entitled Russia faster pace than the publishing Today: A Political Profile in Documents, process. compiled by a group of inde- The necessity for academic pendent experts at the Soviet As- and university science to give a sociation of Political Sciences, more in-depth interpretation of partially accomplished this task.lO the country's political palette, The goal of this first attempt to as- with its numerous parties and simifate Soviet pluralism was to movements, prompted many re­ summarize in a systematized way searchers to tum to the roots of (to the extent possible at the time) Russian pluralism and the multi­ documents and materials about party system.12 A Political History new parties, new leaders, and of Russia: Parties and Personalities new trade unions with minimum (Moscow: Terra, 1993), the work commentary by experts, in ac- of a group of authors headed by 10. Russia Today: A Political Profile in Documents, 1985---1991 (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnre otnosheniia, 1991). The group of experts was comfrised of B. I. Koval (leader o the group and editor), V. PastUkhov, V. Stepanian, . Tarovskaia, and I. Shablinskii. 11. Russia: Parties, Associations, Unions, and Clubs, volumes 1-7 (Moscow: Rau-Press, 1991-92). 12. I shall here refer only to works issued in the last two to three years: Political Parties of Russia: Sketches of History (Moscow: Institute of Youth, 1991); Historical Silhouettes (Moscow: Nauka, 1991) [profiles of Russia's politicians of the early twentieth century]; Policy Documents of the Political Parties of Russia in the Early Twentieth Century (Moscow: Russian Academy of Management, 1993); S. A. Stepanov, Black Hundreds in Russia, 1905---1914 (Moscow, 1992); The Roots of Modern Political Thinking and the Russian Multiparty System (Moscow: Russian Academy of Management, 1993).

Kovler 45 V. Shelokhaev of the Russian In­ dynamics of the political field) dependent Institute of Social and and a theoretical outline (power, National Problems, is perhaps the politics, and the state)-together most fundamental work on this with the brilliant essay "Political topic, giving the fullest repre­ Play-Acting" and information "pass­ sentation of political life in Russia ports" on parties, movements, in the early twentieth century. and associations in Russia.13 A desire to overcome the "ref­ It must also be pointed out erence" approach was manifested that academic and university sci­ in works written by professors at ence have begun to react more institutions of higher learning. rapidly to new phenomena in (When teaching, such authors en­ political life. For instance, the countered students' eagerness for Department of the Theory of a more thorough analysis of the Political Parties of the Russian developing process.) The slim Academy of Management volume Russia: The Development issued-within the shortest of a Multiparty System, by Iu. possible, one might even say Dmitriev and K. Tokmakov (put "stakhanovite," time frame--an out by the independent publish­ analytical documentary reference ers Manuskript) is distinguished book entitled The Multiparty by its serious analysis of the po­ System in Russia: Blocs and litical and legal problems in­ Coalitions (Moscow: Russian volved in the establishment of a Academy of Management, 1992). multiparty system. One should also mention the In addition, the Research Insti­ appearance of comparative politi­ tute of Management of the Russian cal research papers dealing with Economic Ministry published a party life in various republics of very limited edition (a mere five the Commonwealth of Inde­ hundred copies), of an analytical pendent States14 and political life reference collection entitled Parties, in the provinces .IS This brief over­ Movements, and Associations of Russia. view naturally presents an incom­ The collection offers an original, plete picture of the processes and so far unused, methodology involved in the quite rapid, in­ for studying Russia's political depth assimilation of Russia's spectrum-the topology of Russia's volatile political dynamics now political space (a system of coordi­ occurring in academic and uni­ nates, metrics, statics, and versity science. 13. Iu. A. Dmitriev and K. K. Tokmakov, Russia: The Development of the Multiparty System (Moscow: Manuskript, 1992); Parties, Movements, and Associations of Russuz (Moscow: Research Institute of Management, 1993). 14. Ye. G. Bazovkin, Political Parties and Public Movements in the System of Modern Democracy (Moscow: Russian Academy of Management, 1993) [a comparative analysis of Ukraine and Russia]; V. Ia. Tretiakova, "The Development of a Multiparty System in a Country Where Civil Society Is Being Formed" (Ph.D. diss., Russian Academy of Management, Moscow, 1993). Works devoted to political life in Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia, and other former Soviet republics have also been published. 15. Political Parties, Organizations, and Movements in St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg: Obrazovanie, 1991); Political Life in a Region (Ekaterinburg: Urals University, 1992). 46 Kovler Independent Centers sponsors of Interlegal. However, and Researchers as in the case of other centers, the Dozens of centers and groups de facto founders of the center of researchers that see themselves were Nina Belyaeva's close as part of the "independent sector" friends and colleagues. are active in Moscow, St. Petersburg, The center set itself fairly am­ Ekaterinburg, Irkutsk, and other bitious objectives: "Inside the cities of Russia. An analysis of country-to facilitate the devel­ their history and activities was opment of a civil society with the carried out in a series of reference aid of public groups, associations, materials produced by Interlegal and movements, which will pro­ and Postfactum News Agency, ob­ vide citizens with an opportunity viating the need for repetition to participate in responsible, state­ here. Let us simply recall the ba­ level decision making and help sic points of these materials. them create new democratic struc­ The majority of independent tures. In international terms-to centers were created during the make the experience of public perestroika era, when the nascent movements in foreign countries democratic movement sought al­ accessible to the USSR's inde­ ternative sources of information pendent sector and help it become and impartial analysis of current part of the world system of non­ developments in the country. Offi­ governmental organizations using cial sources provided only a one­ a wide variety of forms of na­ sided interpretation of events and, tional diplomacy."16 at the time, academic science was It must be admitted that these moving too slowly to respond to ambitious objectives have been new events and was constantly not only attained but surpassed, looking over its shoulder at thanks to the varied nature of In­ "supervisors" from the CPSU terlegal' s work. Neither academic Central Committee. Such inde­ science nor independent centers pendent centers were, as a rule, that concentrated on narrower initiated by young researchers tasks could boast of similar work, (not necessarily those with a back­ including such projects as: ground in the humanities) or by journalists who felt the need for • conducting independent more in-depth analysis than that studies of relations oetween presented in the press. the state and society and the The creation of Interlegal, a mechanisms of their interac­ center for political and legal studies, tion; resulted from this trend. The center • providing expert scientific was founded in Moscow in 1989 examinations of laws and as an independent, voluntary, and other regulatory acts con­ charitable institution. Th.ree or­ cerning the status of parties, ganizations-Postfactum News public movements, and Agency, the cultural center of the charitable organizations; weekly Moscow News, and the "Justice" legal service of Iuridi­ • e?'~ending legal assis~anc_e to cheskaia Literatura publishers­ citizens and orgamzations were the official founders and during the creation of public 16. Brad Roberts and Nina Belyaeva, eds., After Perestroika: Democracy in the Soviet Union (Moscow: Interlegal Research Center; Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1991); Vladimir Pribylovskii, Dictionary of Political Parties and Organizations in Russia (Moscow: Postfactum-Interlegal, 1992).

Kovler 47 organizations and structures, • human rights: from civil induding drafting charters dignity to legal guarantees. and other important legal documents; These research programs re­ sulted in the publication of mono­ • analyzing the state and the graphs that were in no way activity of major political inferior to academic publications parties and public organiza­ in both the English and Russian tions, as well as consulting languages. The best-known is on these issues; Putsch: A Chronicle of Alarming • studying how the Law on Days (Moscow: Progress Publish­ Elections is applied and con­ ers, 1991), widely acclaimed both sulting on election campaign in Russia and abroad. Interlegal matters; and Postfactum News Agency jointly publish a series of informa­ • setting up a data bank on tion and analytical bulletins entitled political parties and their Qf!P.osition and Government, Human leaders; Rzghts, Charitable Organizations: A Clironicle of Their Actzvity, Women's • lecturing and participating in Movements, and Religious Life in other educational activities; Russia. Together witfi the Milan­ • publishing; and based Italian Institute for the Study of International Problems, • creating a library of legal the center has carried out funda­ and sociopolitical literature, mental research into problems of including books in foreign nationalism in the former USSR languages. As one can see, the range of research topics undertaken by In contrast to other indepen­ Interlegal is more than simply di­ dent centers that have carried out verse for a comparatively small research without a clearly formu­ structure, it is comparable to the lated program, Interlegal has diversity and volume of research adopted and begun to implement work carried out by an academic a specific program of research. institute. For this reason, personnel From the organizational point of from academic institutes, includ­ view, this approach has made ing the author of this article, Interlegal more like an academic maintain cooperation with Inter­ institute. The center planned to legal. This cooperation can also be pursue the following research seen in the preparation of alterna­ programs in 1990: tive draft laws prepared by inde­ pendent experts under the • the independent sector in its auspices of Interlegal. social context; • citizen involvement in politi­ Working towards cal decision making; Political Practice Let me note straightaway that • models of democracy; for the moment, academic science • the role of public move­ has greater opportunities to exert ments in perestroika; influence on political practice and to involve, by virtue of estab­ • philanthropy in the USSR lished tradition, degree-holding and Russia: motives, forms, specialists in drafting government structures, and priorities; and acts and bills. It has these oppor- 48 Kovler hmities because of its high level of professionalism and the close ties • to record explicitly the mu­ between science and government, tual responsibility of the a very significant part of which state and political parties; derives from the academic com­ • to award legal status to those muni~ True, some independent political groups that meet centers have managed to elbow the criteria for J?Olitical par­ out academics in the last year or ties accepted in mtemational two, thanks to personal contacts practice; and, perhaps most importantly, • to streamline the procedure due to the high quality of their for state registration of the work in fulfilling state orders for charters of political parties in analytical projects. Frequently, strict comyliance with the such projects are carried out principle o freedom of asso­ jointly on contract terms. ciation and the right of An example of such coopera­ citizens to appeal against tion was the major effort launched registration authorities in to draft a bill on political parties. court; This work was conducted by Interlegal jointly with experts • to define the range of from academic institutes. The for­ political parties' rights, the mation of a multiparty system form of tneir participation in called for clearly formulated legal elections, ana the basic prin­ principles to regulate the relation­ ciples governing the activity ships of political parties with the of party groups in repre­ socie~ sentative governmental state and with civil The bodies; and experience of applying the USSR Law on Public Associations • to establish a system for state showed that the adoption of a subsidies to political parties uniform law regulating the activ­ as well as strict financial ac­ ity of all types of associations on counting within parties. one and the same basis first, ignored the specifics of the forma­ Following lengthy talks be­ tion and operation of political tween the Supreme Soviet and movements-setting them along­ Interlegal, the two bodies con­ side amateur, sports, and other as­ cluded a contract under which sociations-and second, was not Interlegal was to elaborate the conducive to vesting parties with concept and text of the future law. the responsibility that society has This was the first official contract between Parliament and an "un­ every right to expect of them. For official" group of researchers this reason, Interlegal offered its independent of state or academic services to the Russian Supreme structures in the practice of law­ Soviet in drafting a bill on politi­ making in the country. The group cal parties as part of a package comprised both independent re­ that included laws on the freedom searChers and representatives of of association, trade unions, and the Institute of State and Law charitable activities. A concept of of the Russian Academy of the future law was elaborated and Sciences, Moscow State Univer­ discussed with representatives of sity, and the Ministry of Foreign all registered political parties and Affairs. Deputies Astaf'ev, the following goals of the law Anokhin, Varov, Bragin, Lysenko, were formulated: Medvedev, Ponamarev, and Kovler 49 others joined the group of experts center to "dance to the tune" of a at different stages of its work; rep­ single client. resentatives of political parties who proposed amendments and The Information supplements to the bill were in­ and Research Market volved in discussion of the bill at With Russian politics today in all stages. The draft underwent a permanent state of tension, it is scientific examination in a num­ obvious that studies of the sub­ ber of institutes of the Russian jects of political life, namely politi­ Academy of Sciences and in uni­ cal parties and public movements, versities in St. Petersburg, Ekater­ are a much sought-after commodity. inburg, and Saratov. Evaluations Moreover, newspapers and televi­ of the bill were received from spe­ sion refer to endless public opin­ cialists in Germany's Bundestag ion polls; information on various and members of the Italian and political organizations and analyses Spanish parliaments. of their activity are continually be­ This was the first experience of ing published; and reference close interaction between various works on political parties are structures interested in a common flooding the market. The status of problem. Regrettably, the bill that a staff member at an academic in­ was drafted and approved by the stitute, a university professor, an committees and the Supreme independent physicist, or a politi­ Soviet Presidium was frozen for a cal scientist is of virtually no sig­ long time because it was consid­ nificance to the majority of the ered "nonurgent;" the draft was mass media, just as the label of an retrieved from the bowels of the academic or independent center is Committee for Legislative Propos­ not important. There is one crite­ rion here: information should be als just a few weeks before the full, impartial, and promptly fur­ tragic events of October 1993 in nished. True, state structures con­ Moscow. It was then proposed tinue, in keeping with tradition, to that the vote on the bill take put greater trust in academic sci­ place in November-December ence, whereas funds, industrial 1993, in the run-up to early elec­ associations, and parties favor in­ tions. dependent centers or groups of Today, it is clear that Russian scholars organized on an individ­ democracy has lost a great deal of ual project basis. It would seem dynamism in the absence of such that each of the sectors has "found an important law. Interlegal's its niche" (a phrase that has now efforts were not, however, entirely gained currency in Moscow). wasted: it drafted one more bill on Yet I risk provoking general charitable activity (also not dissatisfaction at this point by adopted), which became the foun­ claiming that despite obvious pro­ dation for the Temporary Provi­ gress in the freedom of information sions on Non-State, Non­ and creativity, a truly inde­ Commercial Organizations in the pendent research sector either has city of Moscow. In addition, work not yet been formed or has already on the bill on political parties ceased to exist in present-day demonstrated that new prospects Russia. If we consider that "offi­ can indeed be opened up for the cial'' science at one time served independent sector. Yet the same ideological functions of the CPSU, experience demonstrated that it is it is clear that science is denied very risky for an independent such patronage for the moment 50 Kovler and, with it, its sources of exist­ such requests almost daily in re­ ence. Although academic centers cent years, whether on behalf of retain their powerful scientific po­ the president, the former Supreme tential, they are being denied the Soviet, the government, the Con­ opportunity to receive new for­ stitutional Court, or the procura­ eign publications (previously, they tor's office. In this sense, law, automatically received such pub­ economic, and political centers lications in vast quantities, al­ have incomparably greater oppor­ though such materials were kept tunities than in the past to work in special archives) and communi­ their way toward political practice, cate actively with foreign col­ i.e., toward the policy-making leagues (previously, the KGB process. exercised rigid control over travel; As for the numerous inde­ today there is no money for it). pendent centers and funds that The state now supplies from its emerged under perestroika in re­ budget not more than 30 percent sponse to the rejection of official, of the funds required to maintain Party-dependent science, they have centers for the humanities. This displayed greater drive and are has resulted in the growing de­ more closely in touch with reality pendence of academic centers on and civil society but have, alas, state customers, western benefac­ failed to avoid a financial and, at tors, and national sponsors in the times, political dependence on form of banks and funds. The in­ their clients, one even greater than tegral theme of research is being that experienced by the academic deformed and many basic re­ sector. Many have already been search efforts are being discontin­ gobbled up either by state struc­ ued. Ideological dependence is tures or by political parties and giving way to financial depend­ associations of entrepreneurs. ence. Founded by small groups of en­ Despite the difficult, some­ thusiast-dilettantes and former times catastrophic situation, many dissidents, these centers went Russian academic centers have re­ through a brief period of extraor­ tained their basic scientific poten­ dinary development. Huddled in tial and high professionalism. cramped offices, they produced Freed from ideological shackles, work that, in terms of its energy they steadfastly, as befits the and depth of analysis of current Russian intelligentsia, endure events, outstripped that of cum­ financial hardship, surprising bersome academic centers, TASS, readers with interesting publica­ andAPN. tions. The independence of judg­ But times are changing. Many ment among authors sometimes centers that were at one time un­ demonstrates amazing pluralism, derstaffed and underfunded have against the backdrop of which become well-established institu­ many western colleagues seem al­ tions with elegant offices fitted most conformist. The enhanced out with superior equipment role of academic centers as insti­ (generally of western manufac­ tutes of independent scientific ture, donated by western part­ scrutiny of the decisions and ners). The quality of their output documents of governmental has risen from the point of view of structures has already been out­ methodology, information base, lined. For instance, the Institute of and graphic design. At the same State and Law of the Russian time, however, the output has lost Academy of Sciences has fulfilled the scent of the challenge once Kovler 51 thrown down before the system lications and research are exam­ by uncompromising street ur­ ples of this cooperation. The two chins. The output of many of groups are also brought together these centers bears the distinct by tfie fact that many individual mark of made-to-order production, staff members of academic institu­ whether that of a western fund, tions now experiencing severe fi­ Russian y,arty, or newspaper. nancial problems are able to earn The independent sector," ear­ extra money at independent lier associated with the informal centers and funds, whereas for­ public movement as its think mer members of the "informal tank, has risen in status in the movement" are eager to write same way as the informal move­ their dissertations at academic in­ ment itself, many of whose lead­ stitutes. ers now serve in rresidential structures, municipa councils, The Outlook for Political and associations of entrepreneurs. Research in Russia These individuals have not for­ I have already mentioned that gotten their colleagues, to whose alon~ with the aggravation of the advice and researCh works they political struggle, which is becom­ owe a good deal of their ascen­ ing increasingly polyphonic, Russia dancy. I am inclined to contend is experiencing a boom in political that part (I emphasize part) of the research. I have also attempted to "independent sector" has already substantiate the idea that both become a component of the ruling academic science and the inde­ Yeltsin establiShment. There is no pendent sector have largely lost tragedy whatsoever here. The ac­ their former statuses and, for cumulated potential was simply many objective reasons, have requested by the authorities. Let been put on an equal footing. On us congratulate ourselves on this the basis of these considerations, victory. The once clear division two conclusions suggest them­ between official academic and de­ selves. First, responding to soci­ pendent science and informal in­ ety's need to comprehend dependent research efforts has intractable political problems, now lost much of its meaning. If both branches of social research the former previously served will carry on the search for a way Party-state structures, the latter to haul Russia out of its deep sys­ have found themselves no less temic crisis. Once they have suc­ financially and ideologically de­ ceeded in saturating the market pendent on private and nonstate with information, iliey will need political structures (some are also (based on their obligation to soci­ dependent on state structures). As ety) to go one step further-to the saying goes, every cloud has a give society and its political lead­ silver linirlg: both academic science ers scientifically grounded guide­ and the independent sector, find­ lines for reforming society and a ing themselves in a situation comparative analysis of possible where they have to survive as the variants and alternatives. Sec­ country moves to create a market, ond, regarding the prospects for objectively face similar conditions. their cooperation, "academics" Objectively too, they are moving and "independents" are simply to forge cooperation with one an­ destined to work together. In so other. The work on drafting a law doing, both sides stand to gain, as on political parties and joint pub- does society as a whole.

52 Kovler PROBLEMS IN STUDYING THE CONTEMPORARY RUSSIAN BUSINESS ELITE by Vladimir Lepekhin at the expense of all strata of the he Russian elite has population except the most edu­ Talways been a major cated.) problem for Russia. The One of the processes that nec­ inferiority first of the Russian, and essarily accompanyied perestroika then of the Soviet political elite­ was elite replacement: replace­ in particular, their inability either ment not only of certain repre­ to provide effective governance or sentatives of the elite, but of the "restructure" themselves in elite itself-its structure and response to socioeconomic proc­ methods of formation and recruit­ esses-was the main reason for ment. Thus, one can distinguish a new component in the structure Russia's gradual fall from the of the post-Soviet elite: the busi­ ranks of economically and politi­ ness ehte (often denoted by the cally developed nations. There are term "new Russians" in the mass in tum several reasons for the in­ media). In fact, entrepreneurs, or feriority of the Russian political more precisely, the prospering, or elite. at least surviving, members of The first reason is the bureau­ Russian entrepre- neurship, are cratic nature of power in Russia. often mentioned. To begin with, The size of Russia's territory, the these people shouldered the huge number of so-called prov­ political elite in the post-Soviet inces, and the fact that the patriar­ establishment, on whom depend chal population has not been tied the prospects not only for the into fhe political elite has resulted, Russian economy, but also for and stilf results, in a special, bu­ Russian statehood. reaucratic type of state govern­ The Institute for Political Tech­ ment. The second reason is nologies (the "Russian Institute") traditionalism. Because of the is an independent research center relative narrow-mindedness of founded by this author, Ivan Sukhii, the monarchy and the Russian Ivan Vasil' ev, and Grigorii Orthodox ChUrch-and, in Soviet Vysokinskii. It specializes in the times, of the leadership of the study of the Sov1et and the post­ Communist Party of tne Soviet Soviet elite, with a focus on the Union (CPSU)-the political elite business elite. Since the Russian was incapable of reform in re­ Institute began operating in sponse to modernization and December 1991, the staff has con­ European-American standards held ducted several analytical research by the most mobile strata of the and practical scientific projects. population (the intelligentsia, The main objects of study con­ industrialists, and entrepreneurs). ducted by the Institute are the ac­ The third reason is fhe specific tivities of unions, associations, role of the intelligentsia. !radi­ leagues, and other institutions set tionally, and this is specifically up by industrialists (heads of characteristic of Russia, the intelli­ state-owned enterprises) and en­ gentsia has been alienated from trepreneurs (representatives of fhe majority of the population and private businesses). The Institute in eternal opposition to the also studies the activities of politi­ authorities--bolli destroying state­ cal movements, organizations, hood and diluting the political parties, and other political sub­ elite. (Recruitment of the Russian jects, including lobby groups, political elite has always occurred "clienteles," and other "pressure Lepekhin 53 groups" based on the businesses By "political self-determina­ of entrepreneurs. tion," we mean the recognition by The lnstitute does not examine different entrepreneur groups of entrepreneurship per se, but the their respective interests (immedi­ process of the political self­ ate, basic, sociopolitical, and determination of entrepreneurs political) and the accompanying and their direct involvement in process by which they unite into political activities. In our view, unions and associations that are from the time entrepreneurship both entitled and able to defend originated as a meaningful socicil. these interests in official power stratum until the autumn of 1993, structures. It is obvious th.at the one could speak only of the self­ entrepreneur stratum is extremely determination of entrepreneurs, differentiated; there is no single not of their participation in poli­ entrepreneur stratum in Russia to­ tics. Entrepreneurs played no seri­ day, just as there has never been a ous role until the autumn of 1993, single "directors' corps." The in­ when they were forced to begin terests of different entrepreneur investing in politics and somehow groups are not only different, but or other take part in parliamen­ are sometimes in direct conflict (if tary elections. one speaks of immediate inter­ I should mention that the re­ ests). However, practically no searchers of the Russian Institute entrepreneur group recognizes its treat the terms entrepreneur and basic strategic interests. The deep entrepreneurship in the widest pos­ and deepening differentiation sible sense. By entrepreneurship, we between these interests in tum mean novelties of different kinds determines the variety and con­ in the sphere of economic rela­ tradictory nature of the political tions and activities. Thus, the positions taken by entrepreneur entrepreneur is in our treatment not groups. only a representative of a private One should bear in mind that business but also the author of in Russia today, regional, sectoral know-how, the investor, and the (i.e., having to do with a specific manager of the project being real­ industrial sector of the economy), ized. Outside Russia, the terms and functional interests, as well as entrepreneur and businessman are adherence to various ideologies analogous; in Russia, however, (such as liberal, centrist, or na­ with its traditional priority of dis­ tional-patriotic) determine the un­ tribution over production, the ion of entrepreneurs into groups, entrepreneur is, as a rule, associations, institutions, and identified with the commer9ant-a even parties much more than do person acting exclusively in the social-corporative interests, whose sphere of trade. In our view, entre­ appearance and recognition is preneurs in Russia today are the known to be the basic prerequisite heads and managers of both pri­ for real political self-determina­ vate and state-owned enterprises tion. In a word, entrepre­ (production-, Service- I ana in­ neurs' recognition of their basic frastructure-oriented) functioning interests-their place and role in within the system of new, market­ the system of political subjects-is oriented relations, as well as the only at its initial stage; the entire owners of property (including in­ process will be long and thorny. It tellectual property) used for the goes without saying that the purpose oi producing some trade study of how a "capital party" is product or its equivalent. formed in Russia, the involve- 54 Lepekhin ment of property-controlling Third are the owners and structures in governing bodies, managers of privately held enter­ and the political issues facing prises and firms that are engaged entrepreneurship will be one of in the following areas: material the most important and promis­ production and construction; ser­ ing areas of applied political sci­ vices, trade, and brokerage (i.e., ence over the next few years. commercial businesses), as well as The research staff of the production infrastructure (such as Russian Institute, while studying transport, communications, bank­ the process of political self­ ing, and insurance); and the pro­ determination and the involve­ duction of intellectual property ment of the business elite in (auditing, consulting, informa­ governing bodies, pays special tional, analytical, and other activi­ attention to the classification of ties). entrepreneur groups. After dis­ The research staff of the Insti­ tinguishing the specific nature of tute also studies the process by each group, researchers at the which entrepreneurs unite into Institute divided entrepreneurs unions, associations, and business into three primary classifica­ clubs, as well as the activities of tions. these institutions and their in­ First are the directors (as well volvement in politics. Political as the managers and heads of streams, movements, and parties individual production links) of arising from and created on the various state-owned enterprises: foundation of entrepreneur un­ enterprises that are formally state­ ions are studied in detail. Such owned, use state subsidies, and movements include the Nationwide work according to state order; en­ Union of Entrepreneurs for the New Russia, the Economic Free­ terprises that have state-owned dom Party, the Revival Nation­ status and enjoy state support wide Union, the Free Labor Party, (such as state subsidies, credits, the Consolidation Party, the Indus­ quotas, or licences), but are inde­ trial Party, and the Democratic pendent in their choice of custom­ Initiative Party. In our view, the ers and consumers; enterprises main political movements repre­ that are independent in the choice senting the interests of heads of of customers and markets, albeit state-owned enterprises are the state-owned, but do not enjoy following: meaningful state support; and en­ 1. The Russian Union of In­ terprises that are turning into dustrialists and Entrepreneurs joint-stock societies or are in the (Arkadii Volskii, president), which, process of privatization, but are along with the Revival Nationwide not yet privatized. Union Party, was formed in June The second classification con­ 1992 and unites directors of enter­ sists of the heads and managers of prises producing consumer goods enterprises and firms of mixed as well as the leaders of a number ownership, including joint-stock of former state trade unions in the societies and other privately held Industrial Party; and state-owned enterprises, con­ 2. The Goods Producer Fed­ cerns, and corporations. (In these eration (Iurii Skokov, chairman), cases, we absolve ourselves of de­ which is holding talks with the termining the proportion of share­ Russian Union of Industrialists holder and owner proprietor­ and Entrepreneurs on setting up a ship.) new mass party, the Labor Party, Lepekhin 55 on the basis of the Revival Held and Privatized Enterprises Nationwide Union Party, the such as Egor Gaidar, Anatolii Industrial Party, and the Goods Chubais, Petr Filippov, and Producer Federation; and Vladimir Shumeiko; and, sec­ 3. The Association of Privately­ ondly, by means of the support of Held and Privatized Enterprises Prime Minister VIktor Cher­ (Egor Gaidar, president), a pro­ nomyrdin and other members government union of the heads of (Oleg Lobov, Oleg Soskovets, and privatized enterprises that enjoy Iurii Shafranik, for example) of the the support of the government Funds and Chambers of Private and are in the process of becom­ Entrepre-neurship. They are also ing privatized or transformed into supported by enterprises of joint-stock societies. mixed private and state owner­ It is obvious that the II goods ship, as well as by new financial producers" have not been com­ and industrial groups that have petitive in the world markets. been created on the basis of key Moreover, due to the fall in the industries. population's solvency and the Beginning in the summer of corresponding decline in con­ 1992, each of these three groups sumer demand, these producers increased its pressure on the gov­ have been forced to cut produc­ ernment, parliament, and presi­ tion for the domestic market. dent. As a result, enterprise Bowing to foreign competition on directors were drawing subsidies the domestic market, these enter­ totaling 500 billion rubles per prises are generally candidates for month in autumn 1992 and suc­ bankruptcy in the event that their ceeded in setting up the Council support does not become a priority for Industrial Policy under the of state policy. Such enterprises Russian president on the eve of have thus supported the Industrial the Seventh Congress of People's Union faction in the former Deputies of the Russian Federation Russian parliament and backed in December of that year. Their other political organizations and combined rressure resulted in a parties in opposition to the Gaidar number o directors corps ap­ government and presidential struc­ pointments to the cabinet of min­ tures. By contrast, the monopolist isters: VIktor Chemomyrdin, enterprises of the Russian Union Vladimir Shumeiko, and Georgii of Industrialists and Entrepre­ Khizha. The Seventh Congress neurs are oriented toward com­ drew a line in one sense: Gaidar bining the advantages of the state himself was forced out of the gov­ (subsidies) with those of the pri­ ernment. It was this directorate vate sector (independent control that, in our view, played the cru­ over resources and goods). Hence, cial role in establishing the parlia­ their politicized structures display mentary majority that led not a 11 go1den middle" and 11 centrist" only to the dismissal of a number orientation-a pragmatism that of figures whose authority was borders on ideological vacuum not recognized by enterprise di­ and political amorphousness. rectors (Gaidar, Gennadii Burbulis, Finally, privatized enterprises Petr Aven, and later Andrei are generally engaged by the Nechaev), but changed the gov­ government and progovernment ernment's economic course-­ political structures, primarily by more specifically, certain of its means of the support of members economic priorities. (Seventy per­ of the Association of Privately- cent of the majority in the former 56 Lepekhin Russian Federation parliament Turov, president), which recently consisted of representatives of the joined the former, unite both enterprise directors' corps and re­ heads of state-owned enterprises gional elites). and entrepreneurs in the privately As for representatives of pri­ held sector and must also be vate entrepreneurship ("new busi­ included among the more influen­ nesses"), the differentiation is far tial associations. Among promis­ deeper. Thus, by autumn 1993, ing associations of entrepreneurs about a dozen political move­ are the League of Defense Industry ments and groups were present in Enterprises (Aleksei Shupunov, the Russian political arena, having president) and the Association of been set up on the initiative and Privately-Held and Privatized En­ the foundation of entrepreneur terprises (Egor Gaidar, president). structures. Among these struc­ One should also not dismiss the tures, we distinguish three: the Goods Producer Federation (Iurii Nationwide Union of Entrepre­ Skokov,Jresident), which has ac­ neurs for the New Russia celerate its activities of late. (Konstantin Zatulin, chairman, One area in which the Institute coordination council), the Eco­ has worked during recent months nomic Freedom Party (Konstantin is the study of entrepreneur par­ Borovoi, leader), and the Free ticipation in the parliamentary Labor Party (Ivan Kivelidi, chair­ elections of December 1993. Ele­ man). If we compare the ideologi­ ven entrepreneur unions took part cal platforms of these movements, in the election campaign in we find that the Nationwide Union November and December 1993: of Entrepreneurs for the New Russia is of liberal-conservative the Nationwide Union of Entre­ orientation, the Economic Free­ preneurs for the New Russia (K. dom Party of liberal orientation, Zatulin); the Russian Union of In­ and the Free Labor Party of social­ dustrialists and Entrepreneurs (A. liberal orientation. Volskii); the Association of Rus­ At present, the most influen­ sian Industrialists and Entrepre­ tial associations of entrepreneurs neurs (V. Piskunov); the Revival include the Association of Russian Nationwide Union (A. Vladislavlev, Banks (Sergei Egorov, president), A. Dolgolaptev); the Free Labor the Moscow Bankiri.g Union Party (I. Kivelidi); the Association (Vladimir Vmogradov, president), of Privately-Held and Privatized the International Association of Enterprises (E. Gaidar); the Con­ Heads of Enterprises (Mark solidation Party (A. Tikhonov); Masarskii, president), the League the Economic Freedom Party (K. of Russian Cooperative [Owners] Borovoi); the Transformation Union and Entrepreneurs (Vladimir (V. Korovin); the Democratic In­ Tlkhonov, president), the Association itiative Party (P. Bunich); and the of Joint Ventures, International Union of Russian Oil Industrial­ Unions and Organizations (Lev ists (V. Medvedev). Vainberg, chairman, board of di­ Experts at the Russian Insti­ rectors), and the Russian Cham­ tute carried out a detailed analysis ber of Commerce and Industry of the participation of these (Stanislav Smirnov, president). groups in the election campaign, The Russian Union of Industrial­ assigning each one an "achieve­ ists and Entrepreneurs (Arkadii ment rating." This analysis was Volskii, president) and the published in part by Delovoi mir Commonwealth Association (Igor (6-12 December 1993) and Novaia Lepekhin 57 ezhednevnaia gazeta (17 November (first and foremost, in the govern­ 1993). ment) on the part of entrepreneur In addition, our study focused structures. These include not only on other economic subjects that the ministerial boards traditional were in some way or another en­ to the former USSR, but new social­ gaged in politics: "clienteles," state structures such as the Council ousiness clubs, unions of entre­ for Entrepreneurship under the preneurs within certain branches Russian Federation government of national industry (trade un­ (under President Boris Yeltsin ions), and lobbying structures. It is until December 1992), the Council obvious that the existing political for Industrial Policy under the streams, movements, and parties Russian government, the Council inside the entrepreneur stratum for Foreign Economic Activities make up the upper surface level, under the Russian Foreign Eco­ at which the most "advanced" nomic Relations Ministry, and the coalitions and entrepreneur un­ Public Council for Foreign and ions-"achievers" in the political Defense Policy. respect-are positioned. But we 4. Financial-industrial groups, can also distinguish four other financial unions and companies, strata of entrepreneur unions that and major concerns and corpora­ are playing a still greater role in tions capable of accumulating politics: financial and other resources for 1. "Clienteles," or conglomerates investment in the political sphere. of various kinds of entrepreneur In contrast to the above unions, structures, which are grouped whose main goal is to represent around various state officials or the interests of enterprises and political figures: the structure of firms in their relations with the the Russian Supreme Soviet's ad­ authorities, such bodies as the ministrative department around Federation of Independent Trade Khasbulatov, the Revival Fund Unions, financial and industrial around Rutskoi, the State Prop­ groups, financial associations, and erty Committee around Chubais. other structures of the "corpora­ 2. Nationwide, international, tion" type are the principal holders and regional unions of entrepre­ and managers of material re­ neurs of the functional and indus­ sources and are therefore more trial-branch type (entrepreneur capable of affecting the situation trade unions of a kind): the Asso­ in society than are "upper-level" ciation of Russian Banks; the associations and entrepreneur Russian Commodity Exchange trade unions. Union; the International Associa­ As a rule, these four types of tion of Joint Ventures and Organi­ entrepreneur unions avoid direct zations; the Russian Stock political involvement and direct Exchange Association; the Russian and unequivocal relations with Insurers Association; the Russian the political infrastructure. They Timber Industrialists Association; influence the authorities mainly the Russian Timber Exporters As­ by lobbying. Meanwhile, new sociation; the Advertising Agency financial groups (the Menatep Association; the Union of Russian financial association, the Com­ Oil Industrialists. There are more monwealth Association, the Most than fifty unions of this type today. financial group, the Germes con­ 3. Lobbyist structures and cern, the Tiross financial com­ firms set up for the purpose of pany, the Imperial Bank, making inroads in state bodies Inkombank and Promstroibank, 58 Lepekhin the Russian Commodity Ex­ vestment funds) united around change, the Nipek Corporation them. financial groups) prefer local, The most powerful financial "point" lobbying. The old indus­ associations (the third echelon), trial-branch groups (such as however, are those which existed Gazprom, the Norilskii Nikel con­ before perestroika on the basis of cern, the Yakutalmaz Corporation, key branches of the economy (e.g., and the Uralmash, Roskhlebpro­ the fuel and energy, automobile, dukt, and Zil joint-stock societies) and nuclear power industries; the combine local lobbying with gen­ machine-bui1ding and military­ eral industrial lobbying activities. industrial complexes; and indus­ One must also note account trial-branch and interindustrial­ that such financiat or financial­ branch associations). As reform trade, associations and companies started, these associations ac­ quired new banking and other as Menatep, Most, Olbi, or financial structures and, in tribute Mikrodin are only the first eche­ to the current fashion, began re­ lon of associations of this kind, naming themselves as firiancial­ "exposed" not only due to inten­ industrial groups and companies. sive advertising campaigns, but to For exampfe, the Gazprom concern active lobbying. As a rule, these (once headed by current Russian associations are supported by premier Viktor Chernomyrdin) is three types of financial structures: nothing less than the core of the 1) those that are trade-related, most powerful financial-indus­ mostly in the export and import trial group in the country, which spheres (and therefore in need of easily outperforms any other the quotas, licenses, and privi­ financial association engendered leged credits granted by the gov­ by "new business." ernment); 2) those that are All the financial-industrial mastering financial operations groups and commercial conglom­ involving new commodities­ erates which have become in­ land and real estate-faster than creasingly intertwined with poli­ others; and 3) those that are linked tical structures are nothing but old to various financial activities, and new "pressure groups" (or primarily banking and auxiliary their offspring) and, in our view, activities such as insurance and should be the main subject of con­ investments. temporary Russian policy. It is At present, the structural these "pressure groups" that, as can be seen from the above, are institutionalization of another the basic subject of study at the echelon of financial associations­ Russian Institute. Predicting the more powerful than the above-is political future of entrepreneur in full swing: that of financial and movements and associations is es­ industrial associations' holding pecially important in the scientific companies. The skeleton of this work of th.e Institute; the projec­ echelon consists of major monop­ tions prepared by the Institute olist enterprises, industrial-branch during th.e election campaign in and territorial associations, the raw the autumn of 1993 were thus materials market, arms monopo­ hugely popular with entrepreneur lists and those of other strategic groups. and badly needed goods­ " enriched" by the various new enterprise structures (such as bro­ ****** kerage firms, banks, and in- Lepekhin 59 The Russian Institute published • Lobbying in Contemporary us­ the following political studies sia based on its 1993 research: • Entrepreneurs and Power in • Leading "Pressure Groups" of Contemporary Russia (1991- New Business 1993): Political Aspects • Strategy and Tactics of Russian • Capital Parf:tt: Technology of Entrepreneur Associations Creation and ideology.

60 Lepekhin THE ANALYTICAL COMMUNITY AND REFORM IN RUSSIA by Gleb Pavlovsky Twentieth Century and the system and its other civilizing fac- World: An Analytical Center tors, including elementary life- he analytical center support systems, were closely fused with this very system. The Twentieth Century and T abrupt collapse of the USSR the World emerged dur- would therefore inevitably lead, at ing the second half of the 1980s the very least, to a deep barbariza- within an informal group of tion of the political process in the authors and political activists cen­ east. tering around the editorial board These ideas were not limited of the monthly publication Twentieth to discussions and publications. Century and the World. The group Members of the Twentieth Cen­ (which at that time included his­ tury and the World group, acting torians Mikhail Gefter, Gleb in line with "stochastic construc­ tivism," were constantly estab­ Pavlovsky, Vyacheslav Igrunov, lishing autonomous political, political scientist Andrei Fadin, economic, and research entities ethnologists Gasan Guseinov and with the purpose of extending the Denis Dragunskii, sociologist zone of resistance to spontaneous Simon Kordonskii, and lawyer processes. Today this model of po­ Nina Belyaeva) was fascinated by litical behavior can be regarded as the idea of constructing a demo­ an attempt to stop the geopolitical cratic social alternative to the offi­ avalanche, using the landslide as cial policy of hberalization handed construction material. Neverthe­ down from above known as less, some entities created within "perestroika." this model are still active (having now acquired full independence): Compared with other groups Memorial; the Moskovskaia within the democratic intefligent­ Tribuna club; the Institute for sia, Twentieth Century and the World was notable for the atten­ Humanities and Political Re­ tion it devoted to cultural and search; the Interlegal center; Post­ ideological factors in comprehen­ factum News Agency; and finally, sive state reform and for its con­ Twentieth Century and the World viction that the USSR possessed a itself, both as a publication and as genuine social, cultural, and terri­ an analytical center. torial framework that differed It was this group, too, that from its decorative political shell, conceived the plan to set up an in­ termed by those involved in dependent news agency at a na­ perestroika as the "administrative tional level, one that would system." The group's members re­ legally operate as a private enter­ jected the opinion, widespread in prise (known at the time as "coop­ the Moscow liberal stratum, that erative activity"). It was assumed the latter was artificial and had that such an entity would be able been politically "forced" upon a to overcome the vacuum of objec­ resisting majority. All members of tive data and limit the reign of the cirde that gathered around the mythological formulations and Twentieth Century and the World primitive liberal dogmas that had magazine were reasonably sure already become established that the weak elements of civil so­ among the Soviet intelligentsia at ciety within the Soviet totalitarian that time. Pavlovsky 61 Development of the Concept happened, and how to behave to of a Nationwide News Agency acll.ieve success. In receiving and Due to procedures for the clas­ accumulating information, an sification of information and agency needed to be associated criminal penalties for disclosure with independent research centers of state and military secrets, the as well as state research and infor­ USSR information field was mation entities. Independent greatly stratified, complicating the news agencies, it was believed, coordination of activities of indi­ could in the long run initiate a vidual people and groups. The new information and intellectual Postfactum News Agency was environment, hence the idea that built on the premise that the USSR organizing the information envi­ information field was ideologized ronment would consolidate oppo­ and characterized by a hypertro­ sition circles on the basis of phy of explanations. On the one rational blueprints of reality and hand, there was a system of nor­ create a rapidly expanding "oasis" mative perceptions supported by of dominant, nontotalitarian the entire way in whicfi the state models of behavior that would functioned; on the other:, people function as a pressure on the re­ considered all state assertions treating totalitarian sector. concerning reality to be a fiction. One can easily see the concep­ In every period of the life of tual similarity between this model the Soviet state, there existed a and the reformist scheme put for­ balance between negativist and ward by the Gaidar team. In fact, orthodox myths that allowed people several members of that team had to survive and to act. Glasnost' earlier been active participants in could be regarded as a violation the work of the Postfactum of this balance. The types of activ­ agency.1 By the time Gaidar 's re­ ity that surfaced under perestroika form government was set up, the as a rule turned out to be unsuc­ Postfactum News Agency had be­ cessful and to bring with them come the second-largest private no satisfactory results. People agency in Russia, with weU-estab­ thirsted for information essential lished media-monitoring centers, to successful, concrete action. By a regional data bureau, and an no means did all people want this analytical center. The inclusion of information, of course-just those former agency colleagues in the who became involved in politics government created the practi­ or who legalized their commercial cally irresistible temptation to or­ interests (these yeople later came ganize a system of supplying and to be called the 'new Russians"). analyzing information on reform. To satisfy the needs of "new subjects" in successful activity The 1991-1992 (and in forming the very criteria Information Project of success), news agencies had to The disintegration of the USSR possess information on what ex­ washed away systems for collect­ isted, how it functioned, why it ing, analyzing, and interpreting

1. This interaction was, however, not without conflict. The Gaidar version of economic liberalism was subjected to sharp criticism by the agency's analysts; in its special expert file "Boris Yeltsin-Leader of Great Russia?" (May 1991), the analytical center of the agency was the first to .Pay attention to the national-autocratic and authoritarian accents of the Yeltsin regrme.

62 Pavlovsky information about the country's It was planned that the infor­ condition, systems that had been mation collected by the agency developing throughout its entire would be forwarded through existence. By 1989 the general communications channels to ex­ state system for gathering and pert groups which, using this ma­ analyzing statisticaf and economic terial in conjunction with their information was already dis­ own information, would formu­ rupted. Moreover, systems for late assessments and compose gathering, analyzing, and inter­ preting sociopolitical information their own forecast documents. had been organized to service the The documents issued by each totalitarian state and proved com­ group of experts were to be chan­ pletely useless for collecting infor­ neled to the Expert Council, mation on the processes currently which would draw up a final under way in the territory of the evaluation and forecast, relying ex-USSR. Managerial and com­ both on the experts' evaluations mercial decisions made in a virtu­ and its own information. Such ally total information vacuum products included the following: generally turned out to be errone­ 1) weekly analytical reports pre­ ous and only added to the eco­ pared separately by the expert nomic and political crises. Given councils of each foundation and these circumstances, under the placed at the disposal of all part­ aegis of the so-called "govern­ ners in the project; 2) fortnightly ment of reform" an idea surfaced analytical surveys of the "state of to pool the efforts of public or­ the country" prepared by the ganizations, commercial entities, and state bodies of the Russian united Expert Council that coordi­ Federation and other OS states to nated evaluations and forecasts of create a system for collectin& ana­ the chief experts; and 3) six-month lyzin& and interpreting information. reviews. The idea was, first, to arrange Today it is easy to see that we a system for collecting and ana­ were somewhat utopian in our es­ lyzing primary factual, sociologi­ timation of the role of adequate cal, and economic information in information and analysis. The the territory of the former Soviet concept of "civilizing information Union and, second, to obtain a and analytical servicing" in gen­ carefully weighted, expert evalu­ eral shared, and even foreshad­ ation of the economic and socio­ owed the 1991-92 constructivist political situation in those states dogma that a new Russian state­ that had emerged within the terri­ hood could be built by a group of tory of the former USSR, based on realistically minded, well-subsi­ a comparison of assessments made dized intellectuals with a ruthless by organizationally independent attitude toward the masses. Many expert groups. The project was elaborated with the participation of us proceeded from the assump­ of the Russian government, repre­ tion that the presentation of rele­ sented by the Working Center for vant data on any issue could Economic Reform, the Postfactum "provoke" a process of revision of News Agency, the fustitute for the authoritarian-monetarist model Humanities and Political Research, and push "the government of re­ and the Relcom joint-stock com­ form" toward a discussion with pany. broad public circles. Pavlovsky 63 Gaidar's "Government the authorities themselves) and of Reform" "constitutional order" (an order The division of state responsi­ respected by neither of these par­ bility in November 1991 between ties, yet one which maintained the the "political government" of Yeltsin "the rules of the game"). and the "economic government of Elimination of the mechanism reform" of Gaidar brought unex­ of state price regulation signaled pected consequences. The group the beginning of a universal of "power ministries"-the Security pillage of USSR state property Ministry, the Defense Ministry, the by regional, sectoral, and former Interior Ministry, and, due to the Communist Party nomenklatura state nature of the electronic mass groups. Liberal doctrine ensured media and their exclusive role in their freedom of approrriation Yeltsin' s coming to power, the and redistribution o state resources-products were con­ Ministry of Press and Informa­ verted into hard currency and ex­ tion-found themselves at the :ported beyond the boundaries of epicenter of the political govern­ the Russian Federation. Idealistic ment. "Political" ministers had reformers liberated the social the opportunity to blackmail groups formed under socialism "economic" ones, the more so in from the burden of any sort of that their public blackmail pro­ administrative or political limita­ vided the Gaidar team with argu­ tion and even included some of ments for blackmailing the these groups in new distributive western economic community.2 oligarchies. The servicing of these The year 1992 was ushered in oligarchies, however, was as­ by the abolition of price regula­ sumed by administrative entities tions, after which Gaidar's gov­ of the former Union state. ernment took one other, more Althou~ many consequences radical step: the introduction of of "shock' therapy were unex­ free trade. Gaidar 's "government pected by proponents of the of reform," ideologically based on 'Polish model" (including the re­ the "Polish model," pointedly re­ sistance of structural socia1 groups jected subsidies and price controls within socialist society), such re­ and separated actual economic sults had been predicted. In the and political processes in Russia mid-1980s, a group of economists and the CIS countries from their and sociologists including Simon management by the state. Anum­ Kordonskii and Vitalii Naishul ber of phantom concepts then authored the theory of the admin­ filled the gap between actual istrative market and used it to ex­ streams of commodities and plain the socioeconomic arrange­ money and the imitation of their ment of the USSR and the logic of management, for example, "party its possible transformation. From pluralism" (an intangibility for the viewpoint of this theory, the the public masses in the capital reforms of the Gaidar government and most provinces, as well as for were neither necessary nor suffi-

2. The "political government" acted as the center of gravity for anonymous groups and lobbyists and was subject to constant rotation that simulated activity. Western investors, more interested in Russia's military-political stability, saw in neither the "Gaidar cabinet" nor the "power cabinet" that was being constantly reshuffled behind the scenes a group capable of ensuring this stability. Moscow has to date failed to produce a single responsible government.

64 Pavlovsky cient, since they relied on initially Stalinist administrative-territorial false ("Sovietological") ideas legacy." But the need to provide about the social structure of so­ credit for the delivery of freight to cialist society, the socialist econ­ the Russian North and springtime omy, and socialist institutional agricultural work performed across arrangements. Monetarist policies the vast Eurasian expanse, as well and methodology simply could as to maintain the armed forces of not bring about the results the re­ the former USSR on this huge ter­ formers desired. ritory, sobered them. The territo­ If one proceeds from the rial factor, classified as an exter­ theory of the administrative mar­ nality by liberal economic dogma, ket, the outcomes of "radical eco­ proved to be active, even decisive, nomic reform" boil down to in Russia. Many of Russia's prob­ deepening social stratification, the lems as a part of Eurasia stem commercialization of authority from the necessity of controlling (i.e., growing corruption), the dis­ an enormous and poorly clever­ covery of a structural social oped space-using the force of dynamic, and the destruction of central authority to make it an Russia's administrative-territorial area of subordination, distribu­ structure (leading to its regionali­ tion, and control. The state contin­ zation). ues to function on the basis of As early as mid-1992, mem­ alienating financial and material bers of the Gaidar team had be­ resources from their owners in order come convinced that liberalism, to maintain social stability and even moderate liberalism, was an support the imperial inheritance, unacceptable ideological base for i.e., an impotent army and an in­ the elaboration of state policy. On effective system of management} one side, new economic forces Thus in Russia today calls are used liberal economic doctrine to being heard for the "restoration" demand freedom of action for of the pre-October Russian themselves while excluding com­ Empire, together with the claim petitors from the game (generally that Russia is the "successor" to by means of state regulation, pri­ the USSR. The idea of anti­ marily licensing). On the other Communist restoration was side, inconsistent and corrupted wholly borrowed from the coun­ liberalism provided a good target tries of Eastern Europe; yet there, for traditionalists. unlike in Russia, the idea entailed a restoration of the parliamentary Territories, Regions, and system and relied on those mem­ the Ideology of Restoration bers of the older elite of these By the summer of 1992, mem­ societies who either still remem­ bers of the Gaidar government bered pre-Communist ways or had discovered for themselves the had received political educations existence of Russia's regional directly from pre-Communist structure, which they had for­ forces. In Russia, advocates of res­ merly attributed entirely to "the toration were directly opposed

3. The Chernomyrdin government is directing its efforts toward the preservation of the administrative integrity of the state at the expense of economic liberalization and, above all, toward a slowing of social stratification-essentially localizing this stratification to a narrow stratum of "new Russians" politically dependent on the state.

Pavlovsky 65 precisely to those at the summit of Russian political culture, whereas the age pyramid and could find the pro-presidential camp has acceptance only in a myth that op­ adopted the course of a direct res­ posed youth and the "new Rus­ toration of the Russian EmJ?ire, sians" to the traditionalist with overt monarchist intonations majority. This alone made the ide­ evident in the idea of a "strong ology of restoration prone to con­ president" as the source of power flict and set it in opposition to the mgeneral. masses (as it was "vanguardist"), For example, in the semioffi­ everywhere sowing conflict; the cial newspaper President (no. 36, fate of the Lenin Museum and October 1993), A. Bukatin pro­ Mausoleum is only the most noto­ poses a truly monarchist concept rious example of such controver­ of Yeltsin's power as "the power sies. The (rather inconsistent) granted from God through His application of this ideology by the people." In his article "Half a government gave the government Czardom for a Czar" (Literatur­ itself a narrowly partisan and naya Gazeta, 29 September 1993), even conspiratorial nature. Afeksandr Arkhangelskii wrote: Intertwined in an odd and "The President's step is inevita­ totally inorganic way with demo­ ble. It is merely a little late. I hope cratic declarations, national demo­ not as late as was, in its time, the cracy was creating an ideological disbandment of the State Duma brew that inevitably had to sim­ (by Nicholas ll) ... Yeltsin is com­ plify itself one way or another. It pelled to do as a monarch can and must do who has the source is not by chance that inside this of his 'legitimacy' in his own amalgam, a number of the creators self.... Wfiether the monarchy of official national democratic ide­ will be restored or the inner ology of the "Second Republic" monarchist sentiment remain an steadily evolved toward "irrecon­ unrealized complex of the new cilable opposition" to the govern­ Russia-! do not know." ment (Astaf' ev, Baburin, In the newspaper Vek (no. 41, Rumiantsev, and, to a certain ex­ October 1993), A. Prokhvatilov tent, Khasbulatov). Charac­ wrote, "The old master should teristically, anti-Communist ad­ rely on a new, broader social vocates of restoration feel no re­ base." spect for the political tradition Practically one day after firing and ideas of the first democratic on the White House under the Russian republic of 1917. The ideological guise of "anticommu­ democratic press thus accused nism" and 'antinationalism," the those who participated in direct presidential bloc adopted a num­ negotiations between the conflict­ ber of the ideas of the parliamen­ ing parties in early October 1993 tary bloc's extremist wmg: ethnic of a "spineless Kerenshchina" (the purges in Moscow, reinstitution of weekly Sobesednik) and "oppor­ the passport system, a new role tunism" (Izvestia). for the army, pretensions to the The post-October split in the role of policeman of Eurasia (pre­ democratic elite separated two tensions that forced President traditions which had been mixed. Nazarbaev of Kazakhstan to The liberal-oriented forces that nearly tear down his September oppose the regime of Yeltsin' s per­ 1993 "ruble pact" with Russia). sonal power owe their allegiance All these ideas were borrowed to the democratic threads of nine­ from the irreconcilable radical op­ teenth- and twentieth-century position; characteristically, they 66 Pavlovsky have earned the approval of right­ prerevolutionary "Black Hundred" wing extremist organizations: organizations and contemporary "The promise to severely punish Latin American right-wing 'southern invaders' is the comer­ extremist groups). stone of the election campaign of In this ocean of instability a the National Republican Party of citizen will be forced to side with Russia, and its implementation (to the Moscow power center, which general approval, which is sad) reigns without rules or limita­ was practically set in motion by tions. Luzhkov," wrote Lysenko (Mosk­ ovskii komsomolets, 27 October Old Social Stratification 1993). "Naturally, I realize this is a and New People demagogic step on the eve of the A multilevel system of inter­ elections, but it is clear to me that ests based on new social stratifica­ Luzhkov is a pioneer in this tions has formed in Russia today. matter." The president (together with his In response, the new opposi­ government and administration) tion is addressing the Russian represents the interests of Russia democratic heritage, in particular as the successor of the USSR The the political traditions of the federal ruling stratum worries Democratic Movement of the about the army, borders, customs 1960s-1980s, the first Russian and other systems, and relations republic of February-October with "near" and "distant" foreign 1917, and the antiautocratic ideas countries. The functionaries from of the prerevolutionary liberal local bodies of authority (the re­ democratic opposition. The result gional elites) are pondering how is a political choice: the creation of to feed the population of their a genuinely new statehood within regions and how to sell at the Russia's existing borders by in­ largest rrofit possible the rem­ volving real members of the nants o USSR property in their population-with their regional, territories. The "directors' corps" ethnic, and religious differences, and the former sectoral elite no as well as their traditions and be­ longer symbolize authority for liefs of the Communist period-in their subordinates and are today the political process; or the con­ successfully usurping opportu­ solidation of various distributive nities for power that derive from groups of the Second Republic in property rights to those indus­ an oligarchy engaged (especially tries under their administrative after 4 October 1993) in an all­ control. around defense from the entire so­ The "new people" (business­ ciety. men and rich people) have ac­ The second case-and it is quired a personal speculative precisely this model that is being fortune. Exporters of rare metals realized before our very eyes in and oil are now trying to convert the name of the state-involves speculative capital into real estate, the formation of a virtually land, and production facilities at private system of power, reliance any cost. The "new Russians" are on the arbitrariness of administra­ interested in a strong state, an tive entities, suppression of dis­ interest which manifests itself in sent, and the unleashing of local activities to create local secu­ xenophobia, fear, and self-made, rity systems and individual decentralized violence in the attempts to "reach" state function­ country (following the pattern of aries, turning them into agents of Pavlovsky 67 influence of such local interests. president and this government do Local preferences granted to indi­ not on the whole regard them as vidual "new people" or their citizens. Rather, they are viewed groups, however, cancel one an­ in the same manner as medieval other out and are hastening the German princes viewed rich disintegration of existing state in­ moneylenders, pawnbrokers, and stitutions. Jews. The "new people," unlike The majority of the country's regional and sectoral postsocialist population-that is, the people leaders, are interested- in preserv­ (including intellectuals)--are utterly ing a single linguistic, cultural, marginafized. Representatives of and financial space. This space "the people" either gradually be­ could become a new Russian state come riclier and join the "nouveau whose boundaries would not nec­ riche" stratum or fall to the very essarily coincide with the borders bottom of the social hierarchy, of the existing Russian Federation. turning into new lumpens. The Today the "new people" are act­ stratum of rich people is supple­ ing in alliance with the federal mented by corrupt state function­ authorities against regionaliza­ aries and directors of commer­ tion; this is a temporary bloc, cialized enterprises. At the same however, since federcil authorities time, the lower stratum of the need the restoration of a unitary social hierarchy is being replen­ administrative integrity, whereas ished with people who had earlier the "new people" need a single belonged to supreme strata, but economic and legal environment. now find themselves without a The "new Russians" have function in Russian society. been and still are overestimated as The pace of social stratification the vanguard force allegedly in­ is very great in sociological terms, terested in rationalizing political where time is estimated in genera­ mechanisms and creating a nor­ tions; people who join a certain mal, nonpartisan statehood in social stratum rarely understand Russia within its new boundaries. their new status in full. Crude dif­ Commencing with the events of ferences and oppositions continue September 1993, the "new Russians" to dominate an individual's reali­ have exposed themselves as all zation of his /her social status. but the most Kremlin-dependant, Moreover, the various social strata demoralized, and authoritarian are still not arranged economi­ stratum of Russian society. One cally or institutionally, and people example of this reality was the fol­ who in their external guise are lowing right-wing extremist into­ members of one social group re­ nation: "The time of illusions, main internally (in their self­ pluralism, democratic flirtation is estimation) members of the gone .... No freedom of speech in socially established groups of pre­ the nearest future. All captured perestroika society. defenders of the White House, all The "new Russians" were those red-faced, sweaty, moronic forced to support the president creatures should either be made to and government in ilieir fight run the gaUJ!tlet or put on display against the Supreme Soviet, fear­ in a zoo .... A la guerre comme a la ing that a victory by the soviets guerre" (Dmitrii Bykov, Sobesednik, would spell physical elimination nos. 39-40, 1993). for members of the new class. At One cannot totally rule out the the same time, business people restoration of totalitarian "center­ understand very well that this periphery" relationships in the 68 Pavlovsky territory of the former USSR. Such The "manipulation Utopia" a restoration is possible either designed by Moscow intellectuals within the framework of a resto­ to influence the central authorities ration Communist or restoration has collapsed. "Indirect repre­ nationalist ("imperial") model. At sentation' of the Moscow liberal the other end of the scale is the group has been completely trans­ possible disintegration of Russia formed into "anonymous power" and the other former republics within the Kremlin-the power of into regional entities with primi­ the president's depoliticized en­ tive, marketless economies Iocked tourage, inside of which a fierce into themselves and in conflict struggle is under way to form the with one another. An intermedi­ future (post-Yeltsin) "collective ary point on the scale would be leadership." Yeltsin himself is ac­ the preservation of Russia as a ceptable to members of his own state in which local communities, entourage only until he has to de­ with their remaining adminis­ pend on them, allowing them to trative market relations, are control key state decisions. No politically integrated into a fed­ doubt, in the event of growing so­ eral state with a market economy. cial rejection of Yeltsin' s personal­ After the events of 21 September- ity as the source of the civil 4 October 1993, however, the last divide, his entourage will make option is unfortunately nothing an attempt to replace him at the more than an optimistic hypothesis. earliest possible opportunity with a view toward maintaining con­ "Anonymous Power'' trol over the presidential post. and the Construction The opposition does not exist of a New Opposition in its previous form. The Supreme The events of October have Soviet, like the Yeltsin Kremlin, broken the 1991-93 balance. The was a particle of a fragmented oli­ quasi-statehood of the second garchy incapable of self-identifica­ Russian republic has walked off tion. This oloc led the USSR to the stage, discrediting all political catastrophe, and later interfered and social groups connected with with the formation of a demo­ it. A genuine danger of discredit­ cratic Russian republic. By grant­ ing democratic and legal instru­ ing unconstitutional authority to ments has now surfaced. the president, it is precisely the Among the positive conse­ Supreme Soviet and its leadership quences of October 1993, one who bear responsibility for sanc­ might cite the split of the pseudo­ tioning the antidemocratic liqui­ monolithic (1986-93), politically dation of the USSR and active, urban intelligentsia (or organizing an unconstitutional "democrats"). This split ushered center of power. in a new dynamic in the milieu of The success of the parliamen­ the political elite. Politicians and tary opposition in the December public figures who supported 1993 (utterly manipulated) elec­ Yeltsin' s September coup have tions will itself have no inde­ been discredited, and their isola­ pendent significance; the parties tion is growing with every day. of the previously existing political The idea of instituting Russian spectrum went bankrupt within democratic statehood is currently two weeks of the Moscow con­ acquiring a character of conspicu­ frontation in October. The authori­ ous opposition to the regime per­ ties are acting promptly, severely, sonified by Yeltsin. and nondogmaticalfy to involve Pavlovsky 69 in a coalition everyone who does rights and a rejection of the not object to one thing: their pre­ central authorities' manipulation rogative to exclusive sovereignty. and diktat. Such an ideology today Yesterday's "democratic" figures could most likely be antiauthori­ are involved in the framework of tarian. An antiauthoritarian move­ the new order and the active de­ ment should become the gener­ fense of its prerogatives; this is an ator of the extraparliamentary op­ additional demoralization. That position. After the restoration of a the renowned human rights cam­ normal political spectrum, the paigner of the seventies, Sergei movement would most likely Kovalev, and the nonparliamen­ separate along liberal, leftist, tary radical liberal activist Valeriia youth, regional, and other lines. Novodvorskaia find themselves Today, the informational/ ana­ neighbors to right-wing extremist lytical and expert community of leaders such as Vladimir Zhiri­ the democratic wing faces the task novskii (LDP), Dmitrii Vasil' ev of reconstructing political life, (Pamyat'), and Nikolai Lysenko which has been virtually aban­ (National Republican Party) in a doned and corrupted by presi­ single front in support of the dential authority. The point at president is a manifestation of the issue is to revive the oppositional downfall of yesterday's "political spectrum and return society to spectrum." politics in general. The solution of This reality places partially this task could become the re­ symmetrical demands on the new sponsibility of a new opposition opposition. Restoration of an op­ b1oc coordinating forces of public position requires a mass, pan­ (extraparliamentary) and parlia­ Russian, decentralized movement mentary opposition. Independent that to a certain extent ignores information and research entities yesterday's disputes, united~ by an are currently taking an active part ideology of protecting human in its preparation.

70 Pavlovsky THE RUSSIAN POLITICAL MARKET by Georgy Satarov Introduction: The Political the depreciation of old values has Market as a New Russian not yet given way to a stable Reality "new convertible currency." At the same time, it is precisely on fter a period of seventy the political market in Russia that A years during which a we have the most aggressive ad- political, economic, and vertising based on the most inade- ideological monopoly dominated quate market analysis. the scene, and after desperate at­ The process of change in po­ tempts to make the transition to litical values, orientations, con­ political and economic freedom, cepts, and sympathies taking one can now confidently assert place in Russia is exceedinglr. dy­ that Russia has gone over to a free namic, as is political life itsel . The political market. This market is interest of a researcher studying not yet civilized, it is suffering this process is commensurate with from all known childhood dis­ the problems that arise in analyz­ ing such swift changes. The range eases, its voice is cracking, and it of problems is so extensive that al­ is still trying to act like a "grown­ most any selection of particular up." Our political market has not problems may seem arbitrary. yet created a consumer culture, Since 1991, the INDEM (INfor­ and as a result, a good number of matics for DEMocracy) Center for people in Russia are suffering Applied Political Research has from a peculiar form of twisted been conducting sociological studies bowels. Yet one thing is certain: of the rolitical perceptions and the political market is already politica consciousness of the free. Moreover, its freedom some­ Russian population. This article is times spills out of the framework based on an analysis of two socio­ of "realized necessity," taking on logical surveys conducted in unruly and absurd forms. May-June 1992 and December The market of political con­ 1992-January 1993. The surveys were carried out on sample cefts, political slogans, and politi­ ca leaders is not simply a groups of approximately four metaphor. The political market thousand able-bodied urban and has Its own pnce fluctuations, rural residents of the Russian supply and demand balance, Federation, representative of the soaring inflation, bankruptcies, general aggregate in seven pa­ and accumulation of easy money. rameters (sex, age, education, The analogy is all the more appro­ marital status, nationality, native priate in that the economic crisis language, and knowledge of lan­ that Russia is experiencing is ac­ guages of other peoples of the for­ companied by a crisis of political mer USSR), with an a posteriori values. Economically, we have error not exceeding 0.057 and a just done away with the central­ confidence factor of 0.95. Specific ized economy and have not yet aspects of these surveys and managed to push ourselves into a structural rating methods are de­ market-oriented one; politically, scribed elsewhere.1 1. See G. A. Satarov, "Multidimensional Scaling," in Interpretation and Analysis of Data in Sociological Research (Moscow: Nauka, 1987); G. A. Satarov, "Structure of Political Preferences of Russian Residents: From Politics to Economy," in Russian Monitor: Archives of Modern Politics 1 (1992): 135--48; and Iu. L. Kachanov and G. A. Satarov,

Satarov 71 Of all the diverse subjects cov­ and, in this particular case, use ered by the surveys, the present common categories in perceiving article will describe the results of and assessing politicaf develop­ studies of Russian residents' ments. This mal

Satarov 73 lists from different sample groups temalist state policies, egalitarian and at different times. tendencies, and criticism of bu­ reaucratic trends and privileges in Political Preferences of Russian the state's machinery. In addition, Residents: First Survey Results this group includes statements As a result of the first survey, demonstrating respondents' non­ we obtained five classes of slo­ acceptance of revolutionary meth­ gans. Listed below are the names ods and the use of force. of these classes and examples of Examples: liThe hardships of the the slogans they include: transitory period may be allevi­ ated by introducing compensa­ 1. Conservative Opposition. tions that would take into account A common feature of the state­ monthly price indices" (Demo­ ments in this class is the nonac­ cratic Reform Movement). "It is ceptance of private ownership inadmissible to make Russian and a disposition toward a cen­ statehood and civil accord in the tralized, planned economy. Exam­ country permanent objects of po­ ples: "Land should be recognized tential blackmail, hostages of as national property, part of the chance happenings and vicissi­ human environment tliat may not tudes of the alignment of regional be transferred to private owner­ political forces and ambitions of ship" (Socialist Labor Party). "An regional leaders" (People's Party immediate centralized restoration ofFree Russia). of broken economic ties and state economic sector manageability is 4. Pragmatic Liberalism. necessary" (Russian National tin­ Slogans in this class demon­ ion). strate an obvious preparedness for market reforms accompanied 2. Pseudo-market Opposition. by a certain adjustment of the cur­ The purely "political" part of rent course and creation of guar­ statements in thiS class is charac­ antees for unprotected population terized by sharp criticism of cur­ groups. The political part of these rent policy and a disposition statements is characterized by an towara state patriotism; the "eco­ attitude toward democratic values nomic"! art IS characterized by a that is not indifferent and a ra­ reserve attitude toward market­ tional national and state system. oriented reforms. Examples: "It is Examples: "The intellectual and necessary to elaborate and realize material prosperity of the country a program aimed at forming, in is possible oiil.y when state inter­ public consciousness, concepts of ference in economics, politics, and state patriotism, the value of private life is firmly restricted by friendship between peoples, hu­ law" (Democratic Party of Rus­ man solidarity" (Socialist Labor sia). "It is necessary to separate Party). 1/In conditions of an abso­ the competencies of local and fed­ lute shortage of goods and serv­ eral authorities, thus providing ices and economic disorgan­ for the supremacy of eaCh author­ ization, attempts to liberate un­ ity level within its jurisdiction" controlled economic processes (Russian Party of Democratic may result only in aggravating Reforms). the crisis" (Labor Party). 5. Romantic Liberalism. 3. Social Conservatism. Statements in this class charac­ Statements in this class dem­ terize a radical liberal position, in­ onstrate a disposition toward pa- cluding support for total 74 Satarov economic freedom, unrestricted classes of slogan-points were private ownership, and minimal grouped along the axis in the state interference in the economy. above order. Finall~ we should Examples: "It is necessary to note that classes 1 and 5, occupy­ transfer state property and land ing polar positions along the la­ free of charge to the private own­ tent factor axis, contain only ership of all (willing) citizens" statements of a primarily eco­ (Democratic Movement of Re­ nomic character. form). "Considering the critical All this gives grounds for sup­ state of the health care and educa­ posing that the only factor we tional systems, it is expedient to have singled out that describes introduce a system of medical in­ the diversity of respondents' pref­ surance and to totally renounce erences has been engenderea by free secondary, specialized, and the delimitation on matters of a higher education" (Democratic primarily economic nature. Differ­ Reform Movement). ences in assessments of purely po­ Subsequent analysis showed litical statements have a that a single latent factor would subsidiary, attendant character. be sufficient to explain the diver­ Further on, we shall refer to this sity of respondents' answers. factor as a "liberalism scale." Polar positions along the axis of Classes 4 and 5 are located at the the single factor were occuJ?ied by right end of the scale, class 3 is in statements having a pnmarily the center, and classes 1 and 2 are economic character and con­ at the left end. traposing two opposing political The percentages in column 4 concepts: planned regulation of (volume) are of the overall num­ the economy and a free market. ber of respondents (217 persons, The classification of slogans corre­ or 5.4%, did not answer this part sponded to the results of multidi­ of the questionnaire). Column 5 mensional scaling, and respective shows the average deviation of

Table 1. Characteristics of Typological Classes of Russian Residents' Political Preferences in the First Survey.

Class Class Class Volume Compactness Center number name volume (%) of gravity

1 Conservative 108 2.8 0.066 0.827 opposition

2 Pseudo-market 729 18.3 0.069 0.586 opposition

3 Social 1,674 41.9 0.120 0.303 conservatism

4 Pragn:tatic 1,154 28.9 0.147 0.274 liberalism

5 Romantic 112 2.8 0.165 0.829 liberalism

Satarov 75 coordinates of points belonging to of unpredictability, lacking a re­ the same class, which describes form program controlled by the the compactness or uniformity of people, and having mechanically views of respondents in each and inadmissibly transferred class. Column 6 shows the centers methods of western economic of gravity (arithmetical means of regulation to Russian soil. This coordinates) of points belonging group includes many supporters to each class. of the concept of state patriotism. Thus, we have singled out five The remaining group, class 1, is population groups with different located on the extreme left flank social concepts and political pref­ and is the smallest (approximately erences. On the right pole is the 2.7% of the total). It consists of small (2.8%) class of "romantic active adherents of a centralized liberals" (class 5) who unre­ planned economy. servedly support drastic eco­ It would be useful to compare nomic reforms, right up to these results with those obtained renouncing free education and in surveys conducted in 1991 health care. This group shows an using similar methodology. The obvious indifference to purely po­ main difference is that, formerly, litical statements. the basic differentiating factor en­ Next to this, slightly closer to gendering a variety of political the center, is class 4 (28.9%), preferences was of a purely politi­ "pragmatic liberals" who accept cal nature; it represented a con­ reforms with certain reservations, traposition of orthodox commu­ primarily related to guarantees nism and radical democratic liber­ for economically unprotected alism joined to anticommunism. population groups. Many of them Economic matters had a secon­ agree that free prices should have dary, attendant nature. Develop­ been introduced only after the es­ ments in 1991-92 made the tablishment of a strong private political delimitation factor less sector. This class includes many important. The hierarchy of all adherents of enterprises of the col­ political delimitation factors lective, shared ownership type. changed, which resulted in a re­ This group supports values ot a structuring of the political space democratic and rational national­ and, accordingly, changed the state system and is concerned structure of public political con­ with scientific and cultural devel­ sciousness. This manifested itself opment. also in the fact that the diversity of A little to the left of center is political preferences is now de­ the most numerous group, "social scribed primarily by the economic conservatives," class 3 (41.9%). A factor, whereas political matters disposition toward paternalist have an attendant nature. There is state policies and egalitarian ten­ another difference: the democratic dencies among its representatives flank has split into two groups. are accompanied by nonaccep­ Meanwhile, the numbers in the tance of revolutionary actions, social conservative group have re­ which is highly symptomatic. mained substantial. To the left of class 3 are two groups of opponents of the re­ Political Preferences gime. The fust includes approxi­ of Russian Residents: mately 18.3% respondents. They Second Survey Results do not oppose gradual economic The second survey, conducted reforms, yet accuse the authorities over half a year later, demon- 76 Satarov strated a change in the structure the integrated economic space as of political consciousness. In the a result of the USSR's liquidation first place, this revealed itself in a enormously hampers th.e search new classification of slogans de­ for a way out of the crisis and the scribed below. implementation of reforms" (Civic Union). 1. National-State Conservatism. Slogans in this class belong to 4. Democratism. parties of a Communist and na­ This class includes slogans ex­ tional patriotic orientation; they pressing the traditional "demo­ are characterized by strongly anti­ cratic syndrome." Examples: "A reformist views and opposition to democratic administrative, budget, current policy. Examples: "Land and tax reform, rather than new should oe recognized as national powers for the center and execu­ property, part of the human envi­ tive authorities, is what will stop ronment that may not be trans­ the upsurge of corruytion, the on­ ferred to private ownership" going dissolution o Russia, the (Socialist Labor Party). "An im­ lawlessness" (Young Generation­ mediate centralized restoration of New Policy). "State authority broken economic ties and state structures should not be formed economic sector manageability is on a national basis, since it is nec­ necessary" (Russian National Un­ essary to proceed from the prior­ ion). ity of human rights over the rights of any group, including nations" 2. Ideology of State Supremacy. (Democratic Party of Russia). This group includes slogans supporting values related either 5. Moderate State Liberalism. to a restoration of the former In contrast to class 3, the values USSR or a stronger role for the ex­ of this class are closer to liberal isting state in a11 spheres. Exam­ values, but include state control f>les: "We shou1d renounce and exclude hasty reforms. Exam­ womanish' foreign policy and be ples: "Land reform is a long process more active in applying pressure of gradual transformation of the to settle the situation in 'hot structures that currently exist in spots,' no matter what the West's the countryside, during which attitude would be" (Russian Na­ one should prevent their destruc­ tional Union, Rutskoi). "Russia tion and avoid discouraging peo­ should establish itself as a world ple with one's hastiness, incom­ power; peoples and states that petence, and indifference to the have from time immemorial hifles of life. We should not allow gravitated toward Russia should land reform to result in even a unite around it" (Russian Workers' temporary decline of agricultural Communist Party). production" (Republican Party of the Russian Federation). "It is nec­ 3. Moderately Centralized essary to exempt investments Refonnism. from taxation, establish taxation Slogans in this class support benefits for socially substantial gradua1 economic reforms with projects, and at the same time substantial state control and a toughen the tax collection system" relatively low liberal component. (Civic Union). Examples: "The priority task of economic policies should be to 6. Liberalism. check the production decline" This class includes the principal (Civic Union). "The breakup of liberal slogans that call for feducmg Satarov 77 the role of the state and providing mantic structures rearrange them­ for and supporting drastic market selves in order to adjust to the reforms. Examples: "There needs new circumstances, resulting in a to be state support for those just temporary complication of these starting out as private entrepre­ structures. In geometrical seman­ neurs; they should be given easier tic models, the number of dimen­ access to means of production and sions is a characteristic of their to low-interest credits" (Forum of complexity. Thus, the increase in Russian Reform Supporters). the number of dimensions from 1 "Russia should be fully integrated to 2, which we observed during into the world market. To inte­ the experiment, allows us to sup­ grate our economy into the world pose that we have registered a economic system means to fill our rearrangement of the semantic shops with high-quality goods structure-the structure of rrefer­ ana provide Russian enterprises ences--of public politica con­ with modem technologies" (Forum sciousness. Table 2 (following of Russian Reform Supporters). page) shows the characteristics of When we subsequently ap­ classes singled out during the plied multidimensional scaling second survey. methods to the same data, we In accordance with the above found that the diversity of politi­ methods, these six classifications cal preferences could be ade­ were used to calculate structural quately described by two latent ratings of slogans included in the factors. Analysis of slogan distri­ lists prepared for both surveys. bution on the plane of semantic The results of these calculations space allowed us to attribute a are utilized in the next section. certain meaning to axes of this space and name them accordingly. The Semantics of Centrism Along the horizontal axis, the In describing centrism, I op­ slogans were arrayed from the pose it to radicalism regardless of traditionally democratic to the the political and ideological color­ obviously national-conservative. ing of the latter. The criteria below The factor (latent variable) corre­ are based on this opposition and sponding to the first axis was on the differences revealed in slo­ therefore named 11 democratism." gans, that is, the differences found Analysis of slogan-point projec­ in analyzing both the ideological tions on the vertical axis demon­ products themselves, published strated that its opposite poles over a certain period (approxi­ were occupied by sfogans that, on mately three years), and tne gen­ the one hand, insistently empha­ erators of these products: political sized individual interests and, on leaders, parties and movements, the other, stressed the role and and the mass media. The criteria importance of the state. It would introduced have a semantic, be natural to name this axis rather than ideological, nature. 11 etatism." We shall explain below the rea­ The number of dimensions is sons for this semantic nature. the most important aspect of the The first criterion may be for­ semantic assessment space we mulated in a very simple way: have obtained. Semantic struc­ pragmatism. The name in itself, tures, when they are established, however, does not mean any­ tend to become as simple as possi­ thing; it remains an ordinary for­ ble. If circumstances change (e.g., mula unless it is operationalized. if new knowledge is obtained), se- We maintain that pragmatism re- 78 Satarov Table 2. Characteristics of 'JYpological Oasses of Political Preferences in the Semantic Space of Assessments.

Oass Class Volume Compactness Share of number name (%) centrist slogans

1 National-state conservatism 8.4 0.189 0.083

2 Ideology of state supremacy 28.4 0.157 0.200

3 Moderately centralized reformism 10.1 0.174 0.438

4 Democratism 18.6 0.125 0.500

5 Moderate state liberalism 30.2 0.130 0.400

6 liberalism 4.3 0.132 0.444 veals itself in slogans on the politi­ (Pamyat', Russian Liberation cal market of present-day Russia Movement). in at least two forms. Centrism, instead, tends to ap­ The first form is the relation of peal to the present day, to its pe­ centrist slogans to the present day. culiar features, specific aspects, Radicalism, characterized by its and requirements. For instance, emphasis on absolute values, ad­ radicals maintain, "Black is al­ dresses either the future (in which ways better than white." Centrists these values will win a sweeping object, "Possibly so, yet now, victory) or the past (to which one taking into account the specific should return without fail in or­ nature of the present moment, it der that these values are victori­ would be wiser to believe that ous). Finally, radical values may white is preferable." An example from "real life": "In current cir­ exist outside of time due to their cumstances, holding a referen­ absolute nature. Here are some dum on any problem will result in typical examples: "It is only at en­ social instability" (Republican terprises owned by free entrepre­ Party of the Russian Federation, neurs that a worker can get a fair Democratic Party of Russia, price for his labor, a just remu­ People's Party of Free Russia). neration for his skills and diligence" The other form of pragmatism (Democratic Reform Movement) has to do with practical matters, or "The national composition of right up to formulas for getting representative authorities and out of the crisis, that usually color mass media must be in strict pro­ centrist slogans. Indeed, if it is dif­ portion to the national composi­ ficult to prepare a centrist mixture tion of the overall population" of Communist and liberal con- Satarov 79 cepts, one may try to find a middle politics and economics is taken road between the market and into account. A more thorough state regulation of the economy: a analysis may show that this link­ regulated transfer to the market. age is probably a particular case As for radicals, they prefer speak­ of the second criterion, to the ex­ ing of lofty matters; a petty utili­ tent that policies may serve as a tarian outlook is alien to them. means of realizing economic aims Another criterion is concern and vice-versa. Yet the indisput­ for the means of achieving one's able importance and fundamental goal. Centrists are prepared to de­ nature of these two categories vote individual slogans to the makes it necessary to single out means themselves, regarding this particular case as an individ­ them as independent values. ual criterion of centrism. Radical­ Naturally, they speak about mod­ ism either sees no difference erate, cautious, "therapeutic" between economics and politics or means. If there are some absolute, substitutes one for the other (these timeless values typical of cen­ approaches are interdependent). trism, these first arid foremost em­ At the same time, radicalism typi­ phasize evolutionary forms of cally stands up for political (eco­ Change and nonacceptance of nomic) concepts without thinking revolutionary methods. For in­ about their economic (political) stance: "Any use of force in set­ consequences or, alternatively, tling national territorial conflicts their prerequisites. Radical liberal­ in the current explosive situation ism is a typical example; it consid­ is fraught with irreparable tragic ers economic aims much more consequences" (Republican Party important than the political of the Russian Federation). means of attaining them. Cen­ Whenever centrists refer in trism, on the other hand, tends to their slogans to both a goal and a coordinate political and economic means of attaining it, the empha­ matters in its slogans, carefully sis is generally placed on the lat­ differentiating between them in ter. Radicals, instead, are either order either to "cleanse" the for­ totally indifferent to means or, mer of the latter or, alternatively, when mentioning them (and, of to indicate the correlation of course, the means they propose causes and consequences. For in­ are drastic, intense, and revolu­ stance, "The country should not tionary), do so in passing, as pay for a way out of the crisis by something obvious. Finally, radi­ impoverishment of the greater cals often confuse purposes and part of its population, a sharp means, substituting one for the social stratification based not on other, which is only natural, given labor contribution to creation of their indifference to the matter. A national wealth but on specula­ typical example: "Neither land tion and unjust distribution, nor large property in Russia may which is fraught with serious belong to foreigners. The process social upheavals" (Socialist Labor of privatization should be sus­ Party). pended until mechanisms are cre­ We used the above criteria as ated which will provide for filters to differentiate between property to be placea in Russian centrist and radical statements hands" (Russian National Assem­ (slogans). Obviously, in this case bly). centrism means something other A third criterion of centrism is than an affiliation to the political whether or not a link between camp of the person who gener- 80 Satarov ated a given text. It means the pure semantics of slogans, even presence of a certain syndrome in without a pragmatic context (if the slogan-an aggregate of one does not consider respon­ semantic indicators that are (con­ dents' lives as such). This maae it sciously or unconsciously) im­ possible to formulate the follow­ planted in the text so that it is ing question: how and to what ex­ perceived on the market of ideas tent does conventional political m the manner the author (con­ consciousness perceive semantic sciously or unconsciously) attrib­ indicators of centrism in political utes to an established political texts? niche (in this case, the centrist niche). Centrism on the Russian Our social practices are char­ Political Market acterized by an absolutely defec­ Let us now consider the dy­ tive vertical political line of namics of the supply of centrist communication, due to which slogans in the penod between the latent conventional criteria of cen­ two surveys. Since the people trism, including semantic indica­ who drew up the lists of slogans tors, are established and used in a were unaware of their ultimate stable fashion exclusively by the purpose and were guided only by political class. In other words, considerations of representing only a small stratum of practical themselves, it is appropriate to politicians, experts, journalists, assign ourselves this task. The re­ and politically minded members sults of the comparison are pre­ of ilie public automatically and sented in Table 3. steadily differentiate the "cen­ The difference between aver­ trism currency" from all others. To age rating values for centrist and recognize and assess a centrist slo­ other slogans in winter 1992 is as­ gan, an untrained person may sessed oy a t-criterion, which need additional information, such stands at 1.115. This corresponds as an indication of its source to a probability of erro~ with the (leader or party) or direct prompt­ zero hypothesis rejected, not ex­ ing: "this is what centrism is." ceeding 0.12. This is not a great In our experiment, respon­ margin of error, yet one must bear dents were concerned with the in mind not oniy the numerical

Table 3. Comparison of Data on Assessment of Centrist Slogans in the Two Surveys.

Survey Spring-Summer Winter 1992 19921993

Number of slogans 50 74

Share of centrist slogans 0.100 0.380

Average rating of all slogans 0.463 0.476

Average rating of centrist slogans 0.463 0.500

Average rating of other slogans 0.463 0.462

Satarov 81 value of the difference, but com­ "Thanks to freedom of trade, pare it with the zero difference of all resources are striving to oc­ the first survey. The difference ap­ cupy an optimal position in the pears even more significant if one economic system, and this results considers the ten most popular in the disappearance of shortages slogans in the two surveys. In the of commodities and services as re­ first survey, these included only sources find their way to places two centrist slogans (with only where they are valued more one among the three most popu­ highly and, accordingly, will be lar). In the second survey, there exploited most efficiently" were eight centrist slogans among (Democratic Party of Russia): the first ten and the first three 0.173, 0.257. were all centrist. The three most "Considering the critical state popular slogans and their ratings of the health care and educational are as follows: systems, it is expedient to intro­ "The priority task of economic duce a system of medical insur­ policies should be to check the ance and to totally renounce free production decline" (Civic Union), secondary, specialized, and higher 0.774. education" (Democratic Reform "It is essential to provide for Movement): 0.312, 0.510. the survival of sectors (transport, These changes are evidently power industry, communications), indicative of a certain shift toward the destruction of which would the liberalization of public politi­ undermine the state economy" cal consciousness. Two factors are (Civic Union), 0.743. probably at work here: propa­ "Any use of force in settling ganda and concrete changes; in particular, a sharp increase in the national territorial conflicts in the number of people employed at current explosive situation is private and joint-stock enter­ fraught with irreparable tragic prises. consequences" (Republican Party One can see, therefore, that in of the Russian Federation), 0.738. the course of half a year, there has In addition to the above trend, been a sharp increase in the sup­ one could not but notice another: ply of centrist slogans, accompa­ eight slogans were included in nied by a certain increase in both lists and the ratings of four demand. Does this mean, how­ of them changed substantially. Let ever, that demand has become es­ us consider these slogans and tablished for centrism as a their ratings in the first and sec­ political position differentiated by ond surveys, respectively. political consciousness? Our "It is only at enterprises analysis makes it possible to check owned by free entrepreneurs that this hypothesis. a worker can get a fair price for Tab1e 2 describes each ty­ his labor, a just remuneration for pological class by two figures. The his skills and diligence" (Demo­ first is the share (percentage) of re­ cratic Reform Movement): 0.290, spondents described by the syn­ 0.601. drome corresponding to this class, "Land should be recognized meaning that these respondents as national property, part of the selected slogans forming the syn­ human environment that may not drome of this class in the course of be transferred to private owner­ our survey. The other figure repre­ ship" (Socialist Labor Party): sents the share of centrist slogans 0.612, 0.393. in the list of slogans forming the 82 Satarov syndrome of the class. The table centrist slogans may be explained shows that centrist slogans are by the combined action of two clearly unevenly distributed in factors. The first is people's con­ classes that correspond to differ­ cern about the economic situation, ent poles of the current political which makes them more attentive spectrum. to slogans addressing the present This empirical fact may be in­ moment and to concrete formulas terpreted in the following way. for overcoming hardships. The Perception of centrism is pri­ second factor is that the rising marily characterized by a lack of value of liberal slogans, on the association with national-state one hand, and the appearance of conservatism and (to a lesser etatism as a factor explaining the extent) the ideology of state diversity of people's politi~al :!?ref­ supremacy (class 2). In other erences, on the other, may mdicate aspects, the perception of centrism that a certain law is at work in has no specific features, that is, it does not involve correlating a public political consciousness: in slogan to a certain portion of po­ periods of economically oriented litical space. These observations social development, individual may be explained in two ways. values prevaif over social ones; The first explanation is that con­ this prevalence is accompanied ventional political consciousness by lower interest in abstract political is not yet accustomed to perceiv­ concepts, an aspiration for sta­ ing centrism as an indefendent bility, and nonacceptance of ex­ and substantive politica entity. tremism. These are typical features The second is that semantic indi­ of liberal-conservative conscious­ cators used in a nondeliberate ness, and their appearance out­ manner by the political class to side the political class is without demonstrate its affiliation to cen­ doubt an important, substantial trism does not achieve its purpose development among the numer­ in the process of vertical commu­ ous metamorphoses taking place nication. The higher demand for in Russian society.

Satarov 83 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

NINA BELYAEVA was born in 1957, the Russian Association of Political Sci­ graduated from Moscow State Univer­ ences since 1976, Dr. Kovler has also sity Law School in 1981, pursued post­ been a senior researcher at Interlegal graduate studies at the Institute of State since 1989. and Law of the Russian Academy of Sci­ ences, and completed a Ph.D. in law at VLADIMIR LEPEKHIN was born in London University Law School in 1986. 1959 and graduated from the philosophy Ms. Belyaeva is a research fellow at the c!e£artment of Moscow State University Institute of State and Law and president (MGU) in 1985. He has taught political of Interlegal, an international Charitable science at MGU since 1990. In December foundation for political and legal re­ 1991, he founded the Institute of Political search in Moscow. Founded in 1989 as a Technologies (the "Russian Institute"), an non-profit organization, Interlegal pro­ independent research institute that spe­ motes and supports the establishrri.ent, cialiZes in the study of entrepreneur growth and development of the inde­ groups in the Russian Federation. Based pendent sector and civil society in Russia in Moscow, the Institute has branches in and the other newly independent states St. Petersubrug, Irkutsk, Ekaterinburg, of the former USSR. and Volgograd. Since March 1992, Mr. Lepe.khiri has been the coordinator of the VYACHESLAV IGRUNOV was born in Russian Association of Political Experts 1948 and studied the economy of labor at and Advisers. the Odesssa Institute of the National Economy from 1969 to 1973. In 1967, he GLEB PAVLOVSKY was born in 1951 founded an underground library of and graduated from Odessa University books published by amateur authors; the in 1973 with a specialization in history library existed in twelve Soviet cities un­ Mr. Pavlovsky was a founding editor of til1982. Arrested in 1975 for "circulation the samizdat journal Poisk in Moscow; ar­ of slanderous allegations discrediting the rested in 1982 for publishing in samizdat, Soviet social and state system," Mr. he was sentenced to a prison term and Igrunov was released from prison in then sent into exile. He returned to 1977. After working as an economist in Moscow in 1986, where he became one an Odessa industrial association in the of the organizers of the Social Initiative mid-1980s, he founded the Moscow In­ Club, a maintstay of the "informals" formation Exchange Bureau (M-BIO) in movement during the perestroika era. In 1987, where he served as director until 1989, he became a member of the editorial 1990, when he created the Institute of board of the journal Twentieth Century Humanitarian and Political Studies. Mr. and the World, where he is currently editor­ Igrunov was a founding member of the in-chief. In 1989, Mr. Pavlovksy helped to "Memorial" and "Moskovskaia Tribuna" found POSTFACTUM Information groups during the perestroika era. The In­ Agency, the first independent national stitute of Humanitarian and Political news agency in the former USSR, later Studies conducts research on the political serving as the agency's president and process within its cultural context, focus­ chairman of the board. mg on political monitoring (sociological surveys, regional studies, and !olitical GEORGY SATAROV was born in 1947, analysis), the mass media, an public graduated from the Department of movements and parallel culture. Mr. Mathematics of Moscow State Pedagogi­ lgrunov was elected a Deputy to the cal University in 1972 and completed a State Duma of the Russian Federation in Ph.D. in technical sciences in 1985 at the December 1993. All-Union Research Institute for System Studies, USSR State Committee for Sci­ ANATOLY KOVLER was born in 1948, ence and Technology, USSR Academy of studied at the Moscow State Institute of Sciences. Dr. Satarov taught at Moscow Foreign Relations (19~1971) and com­ State Pedagogical University from 1973 pleted post-graduate studies at the Insti­ to 1990, when he fmmded the INDEM tute of the International Working (INformatics for DEMocracy) Center. He Movement (now the Institute of Political became Director-General of the Russian Science). He completed a kandidat nauk in Sociopolitical Center in 1993. INDEM history in 1978, and a doktor nauk in law studies the activities of democratic insti­ in 1991. He has worked at the Institute of tutions, including the Russian parlia­ State and Law of the Russian Academy ment (past and present), governmental of Sciences since 1980, where he has been bodies, parties,!olitical movements, the Senior Researcher; Head, Department of electorate, an the political elite; it Foreign Law; and is today Director, Cen­ publishes results of its research in the ter of Comparative Law. A member of JOurnal Russian Monitor. Dr. Satarov was 84 About the Authors appointed Assistant to the Russian Presi­ tion in New York He is the author of The dent on Parliamentary and Public Idea Brokers: Think Tanks and the Rise of the Organizations Matters on 7 February New Policy Elite (New York: Free Press, 1994. 1991), as well as individual institutional histories of the Brookings Institution and JAMES ALLEN SMITH is the Executive the Center for Strategic and International Director of the Howard Gilman Founda- Studies.

About the Authors 85