Imperial legacies and democratic prospects: Max Weber'sThe Russian Revolutions in historical perspective

Abstract

The Russian Communist Party's startling gains in the parliamentary elections of December 1995 have raised fundamental questions about Rus sia's political future. What are the possibilities for constitutional govern ment, liberal democracy, and market reform in the coming months and years? Who are the supporters of reform in Russia? Do they have the eco nomic and political resources to overcome centuries of autocratic and bu reaucratic rule and a citizenry little accustomed to free enterprise, individual accountability, and political independence? Such questions led the eminent German sociologist Max Weber to learn enough Russian in three months to critique an array of party pro grams and constitutional projects stemming from the 1905 Revolution and the introduction of parliamentary government in Russia in 1906. Four of Weber's essays on Russia are available in English for the first time in the book under review, The Russian Revolutions, translated and edited by Gor don C. Wells and Peter Baehr. The two major essays, "Bourgeois Democ racy in Russia" (1906) and "Russia's Transition to Pseudo-constitutionalism" (1906), are published here in abridged translations. This is particularly un fortunate in the case of "Bourgeois Democracy in Russia," not only because the textual flow is interrupted, but also because key sections of the German original on the agrarian issue of 1906 are missing or paraphrased. The other two, much shorter essays, "Russia's Transition to Pseudo-democracy" and "The Russian Revolution and the Peace" (both published in 1917) are re produced in their entirety in the book. This review essay will analyze the historical accuracy of Weber's in sights and predictions concerning Russia's political and constitutional de velopment and place The Russian Revolutions in the context of some of the current scholarship and debates over late Imperial Russia and, to a much