Post‐Soviet political culture in Russia: An assessment of recent empirical investigations

Abstract

AT A TIME WHEN THE WORLD SEEMS HEADED toward 'the clash of civilisations' and 'the great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural',1 we must make renewed efforts to comprehend the significance of cultural factors for politics in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The concept 'political culture' has been much used and abused in the study of Soviet politics in recent decades. Some attempts were made 25 years ago to bring rigour to the concept by linking the study of political culture in communist countries to the works of anthropologists and political scientists.2 While this early effort at bridge-building between area and discipline proved to be both interesting and stimulating of new ideas and approaches, its promise in Soviet studies could not be realised in the absence of systematic empirical data to test hypotheses. The best that could be done under the circumstances was to rely heavily on interviews with Soviet emigres.3 Initial optimism about use of the political culture concept gave rise in the 1980s to infighting and soul-searching.4 The new data-rich environment of the post-Soviet era challenges us to test theories that heretofore have lain dormant because of 'obstacles to direct observation' that forced scholars to practice anthropology from afar or to engage in flights of fancy through historical extrapolation.5 This article examines the strengths and weaknesses of some recent empirical research on post-Soviet political culture in Russia in order to strengthen further bridge-building efforts to the benefit of both social science and post-Sovietology.6