PARADOXES OF REGRESSIVE MODERNIZATION AND EXPORT OF RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

In Russia, the topic of modernization continues to be relevant. The government, the parliament, the opposition, and the scientific community regard it as an urgent task. The process of economic growth, which began in the 00s, is viewed as recovery after the USSR catastrophe, and the modernization project is associated with the construction of the Russian analogue of the Western “welfare society”, in many ways resembling old dreams of “socialism with a human face”. But there are various options for modernization. In the 1980-s S. Hall proposed the concept of regressive modernization for characterize the policy of the government of M. Thatcher. This concept allows a much better understanding of the history of the 1990s and the current economic policy in Russia. The specific paradox of regressive modernization is that the Russian center-right government conducts elements of neoliberal politics in combination with state paternalism and even populism. Elements of social archaics, such as clericalism and national autonomy, which enjoy separate legal regimes within the Federation, remind us of a flexible imperial political system. The export of traditionalism and paternalism, which at the same time look like a modern institutional design, is the basis of Russian “soft power”. This creates opportunities for increasing profitable trade and economic cooperation with countries of both left orientation and preserving autocratic, right-wing conservative political regimes.