№ 3 - 2007
Pshizova S.N.
Politics as a Business: Russian Version (II)

In the second part of the article (for its first part see Polis, 2007, No. 1), particular features and prerequisites of the formation of extra-electoral political market are considered. As opposed to the space of the functioning of public representative institutions, which was for the most part of the 20th century taken up by ideological and social identifications, the system of functional representation related to the activities of pressure groups was, from the very outset, based on principles of pragmatic exchange and market competition. The conformity of these principles with the idea of pluralistic democracy is very questionable. But today, in the author’s opinion, against the background of the widespread expansion of functional representation, rapprochement of the principles of functioning of electoral and extra-electoral spaces is to be observed, which creates conditions for the formation of an integral market-oriented political sphere. Marketization of politics stimulates professionalization of political activities and promotes change of functions of traditional democratic institutions, simultaneously encouraging the cultivation of business strategies by all the main actors. In Russian (radical) version, it means that the matter of real distribution of societal resources is transferred into the sphere of functional representation, whereas the electoral process acquires features of a political performance thoroughly staged by professionals.