Russian State Visions of World Order and the Limits to Universal Liberalism by Ray Silvius, BA, MA A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In Ph.D. Political Science with Specialization in Political Economy Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2012 Ray Silvius Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-89319-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-89319-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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Canada Abstract This work uses a critical historicist methodology to explore the limits to liberal democratic universalism and US hegemony at both the material and ideational level by way of the example of the Russian state in the Putin era. It contributes to scholarship within the areas of critical International Political Economy (IPE) and Cultural Political Economy (CPE) by examining the prevalence of intersubjective ideas in mediating, representing, and legitimating profound social, economic and political transitions. Furthermore, this work examines how a powerful state outside of the Western liberal democratic core challenges precepts of world order through the development of an indigenous vernacular. As the Russian state becomes selectively integrated into the global capitalist political economy, it would appear that there is little discursive space for articulating Russia's samobytnost' or uniqueness. However, Russia's integration into the global capitalist political economy and renewed significance in global politics have involved considerable state involvement, which is reflected in the Russian state's attempts to articulate a response to liberal democratic universalism and American hegemony. In this response, the Russian state both rejects Western triumphalism by appealing to nativist ideas and cultural frames and seeks to demonstrate that it meets the criteria of a democratic polity in its own right. This combination of statism, nativist ideas, cultural frames, and questioning the moral and practical legitimacy of Western democratic and liberal criteria provides the basis for what may be considered Russian alternative understandings of world order. Such understandings also may be considered as the Russian state's attempt to fashion a form of common sense about global political life and in the process create both internal and external legitimacy for its centralizing and state-strengthening initiatives within a competitive capitalist global political economy. Concepts and ideas derived from Russian culture, history, thinking and statecraft - Eurasianism, multipolarity, great power, and sovereign democracy - are deployed by Russian officials. Together these comprise a vocabulary to express dissatisfaction with the fundamental premises of liberal internationalism, thereby signifying that liberal capitalist sociability has not become fully engrained amongst the Russian elite or society as a whole. ii Acknowledgements First and foremost I wish to acknowledge the love, patience, intelligence and support of my wife, Jill, who endured more than her fair share of my wandering in sweatpants around various apartments in three provinces, muttering to myself and to her as I tried to flesh this thing out. This work is dedicated to her. I wish to acknowledge the support of my mother. My undergraduate education, Master's education, and finally doctoral work were only possible through her early material sacrifices and efforts to instill in me a love of learning and curiosity about the world. My utmost appreciation is extended to my supervisor, Dr. Randall Germain, whose good humour, encouragement, and sage wisdom helped guide me to this completed project. I also thank Dr. Rianne Mahon and Dr. Piotr Dutkiewicz for their guidance and immensely helpful comments on an earlier draft of this work. Collectively, these three professors helped shape the theoretical thrust of this work and sharpen its argument. My deepest appreciation also extends to my Russian language instructor at Carleton, Dr. Marina Sabanadze, for her patience, wisdom and good humour in assisting me with my translation work and my language studies in general. I would also like to thank Dr. Meir Serfaty and Bruce Sarbit, two mentors from my home city of Brandon, Manitoba, who provided encouragement, commentary and a welcoming environment in which to articulate my ideas. My appreciation is also extended to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, and Carleton University for providing funding for my doctoral studies. iii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii Table of Contents iv List of Appendices vi Chapter One - Introduction and Methodology 1 1. Introduction 1 2. Problem Statement, Research Question and Temporal Parameters 8 3. Methodology 10 4. Concepts and justifying their use 22 5. Structure of this work 28 Chapter Two - Historicism, Historical Materialism, Intersubjectivity and International Political Economy 33 1. Introduction 33 2. Between Historicism and Historical Materialism 35 3. Critical IPE, World Order, and Globalizing Capitalism 50 4. Theoretical Approach and Its Application to the Russian Case 60 5. Summary 63 Chapter Three - From Crisis, to Recovery, to "Sovereign Integrationist": Examining Russia's Post-Communist Transitional Political Economy 65 1. Introduction 65 2. The Russian State amidst the Transition toward a Market Economy 68 3. Disintegration and the Shaky Terrain of Russian Capitalism 75 4. Putin's Statism 79 5. Russia's Imperfect Integration into the Global Political Economy 89 6. Summary 97 Chapter Four - Russian Eurasianism as Alternative World Order Thinking 101 1. Introduction 101 2. The Scholarly Context of Contemporary Eurasianism 104 3. Eurasian and Post-Soviet Thinking about Geopolitics 122 4. The Moral Imperative of Multipolarity: Polarity as a Moral, Cultural and Civilizational Concern 138 iv 5. Summary 147 Chapter Five - Russia and a Multipolar World Order 151 1. Introduction 151 2. Scholars' Interpretations of Russia and Polarity 153 3. Origins of the Multipolar Question: Gauging its Significance in the Russian Imagination 157 4. Unipolarity, Multipolarity, Polarity: Common Sense Understandings of Global Politics 169 5. Summary 190 Chapter Six - Russia as a Modern Great Power 194 1. Introduction 194 2. Conceptual Considerations of Great Power Status 197 3. Great Power as Russia's Aspiration to Social and Economic Development205 4. Summary 228 Chapter Seven - Putin, Surkov and Sovereign Democracy 232 1. Introduction 232 2. Political Culture, the Russian Idea and Liberal Conservatism 235 3. Putin on Statism and Solidarity 243 4. Vladislav Surkov, Sovereign Democracy, and the Emergence of a Russian Post- post-Communist Public Philosophy 251 5. Summary 274 Chapter 8 - Conclusion 278 1. Summary and Substantive Contributions 278 2. Reflections, Possible Criticisms and Future Directions 292 Appendices 300 References 310 v List of Appendices Appendix A Timeline 300 Appendix B Russian GDP Growth, 1999 - 2008 305 Appendix C Russian External Public Debt, as a percentage of GDP 306 Appendix D Russian Current Account Surplus and Reserves, in US dollars (billions) 307 Appendix E Military Spending 308 Appendix F Military Spending as Percentage of GDP 309 vi Chapter One - Introduction and Methodology The introductory chapter proceeds as follows. Section One consists of an introduction, during which I situate my dissertation thematically. In Section Two I state my research problem and questions. Section Three is comprised of the methodology. Section Four contains key concepts of this work and a rationale for their use. The chapter concludes with Section Five, in which I outline the structure of the work.