EURUS associate professor Piotr Dutkiewicz along with Vladislav L. Inozemtsev recently edited Democracy versus Modernization: A Dilemma for Russia and the World. This book seeks to “re-think democracy.” Over the past few years, there has been a tendancy in the global policy community and, even more widely, in the world’s media to focus on democracy as the “gold standard” by which all things political are measured. This book re-examines democracy in Russia and in the world more generally, as an idea, desired ideal and practice. A major issue for Russia is whether the modernization of Russia might not be more prosperous by focusing directly on modernization and not worrying too much about democracy. In this book a wide range of aspects surrounding this question are explored. It discuss how the debate is conducted in Russia; outlines how Russians contrast their own experiences, unfavourably, with the experience of China, where reform and modernization have been pursued with great success and with no concern for democracy and concludes by assessing how the debate in Russia is likely to be resolved.
This book is the second in the Possible Futures Series. The first book, entitled Russia: The Challenges of Transformation, edited by Professor Dutkiewicz and Dmitri Trenin was published in 2011. In this book, a group of leading Russian intellectuals and social scientists join with top researchers from around the world to examine the social, political, and economic transformation in Russia. This timely and important book of original essays makes clear that neither politics nor economics alone holds the key to Russia’s future. This book presents critical perspectives on challenges facing Russia, both in its domestic policies and international relations. It also explores how global order- or disorder- may develop over the coming decades.
The third and final book in the Possible Futures Series is forthcoming.