Russia's Democratic Experiment
- NINT 5115 - Russia's Democratic Experiment (Spring 2008)
This course focuses on political and economic transformations in the former Soviet Union since the collapse of Communism. It does not purport to offer anything like a comprehensive analysis of these turbulent revolutionary changes. Rather, it attempts to explore a few topics in some detail, with an emphasis on what social science and cultural studies can add to our understanding of events, and how these events offer opportunities to enrich International Affairs. While I would love to devote sections of the course to Ukraine, Central Asia, the Baltics and the Caucasus, the course will primarily focus on Russia. We will look in turn at the Soviet legacy, democratic institutions, economic reform, problems of state capacity, and Russian cultural heritage. This course will also be analyzing perceptions of what transition means both in a transitional country and abroad. We will consider an issue of democratization’s successes or failures from a standpoint of the International media involvement in the process. While there is a weekly meeting designated as lectures, I plan to devote large part of each session to open discussion. Students should plan to regularly read a newspaper or electronic newsletter from the region. Suggestions include the RFE/RL newsline, the Moscow Times online edition, Johnson’s Russia List email list (only for the hardy, you might also try its weekly cousin, the CDI Russia Weekly), or any of the foreign-language daily or weekly periodicals carried on the ISI Emerging Markets site.
Concentration:Governance and Rights