№ 6 - 2003
Pantin I.K.
So What Does the Russians’ Choice Consist In?

The article has been written as a further contribution to the discussion of the problem of Russia’s historic choice, developed in the journal (see Polis, 2003, No. 1-2, 4-5). In 1991 to 1993, I.K.Pantin holds, Russia embarked upon the road of democratic development, but the type of political regime that formed in the country is mostly in compliance with the model of democracy, which was described by J. Schumpeter and of which the whole point boils down to regularly holding alternative elections. So, democracy as form of citizens’ being concerned in the exercise of political power, has taken root in Russia, but thus far only in its “Schumpeterian” form, which does not solve the main problems of the country. Such democracy has become part and parcel of traditional Russian mode of rule, whose basic feature is unconditional priority of the interests of the states over those of the individual and society. In order that the democratic choice become actually irreversible, the author affirms, society’s self-change is required, formation of other political culture. There is need for such form of democratic interaction, for such mechanism of the development of ethnic, cultural, and economic diversity, that would enable all population groups’ self-realization, actualization of their creative potential within new societal synthesis.