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Putin’s ascendancy to power in the
Kremlin marks yet another historic transformation in Russia. In a
country where the political system has always been dominated by
people, rather than laws and institutions, the change in leadership
represents a change in direction more so than it would in Western
democracies. |
Like many
Russia’s rulers before him, Putin looks set to impose his indelible
stamp on the country. As the second term of
his presidency comes to an end it is
clear that he has made his Russia very different from that of
the Yeltsin era.
His political
thought and behavior seems to fit the country’s current system,
which remains a hybrid of democracy and authoritarianism. What is
less known is how well Putin understands that heavy-handed state
regulation and pervasive bureaucracy stifle democratic policies and
economic freedom? His vision of revitalizing the primacy of the
state in Russian lives is designed to overcome the neo-feudal
fragmentation of state authority inherited from Yeltsin’s era, but
may come at the expense of human rights, democracy, and media
freedom.
Does he
realize that greater economic liberalism is linked to liberalism of
the political kind? Can he orchestrate a society-powered
remodernization that would be responsive to domestic consumer needs
and integrated functionally into the global economy? Does he
understand that technological innovation, advanced
telecommunications, and venture capital, which are the engines of
economic growth in the early twenty-first century, can thrive only
in open and free societies? These are the questions, the positive
answers to which will ensure Putin’s valued place in Russian and
world history.
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