Democracy & Russia

Steven Fish's “Derailed Democracy”

Abstract

Democracy is a study aims to provide power to the people, making them the ultimate authority and the true decision makers as far as the country is concerned. After Communism Russia saw democracy creeping in its system, therefore this paper aims to explore some parts of the Russian Democracy in the perspective of Steven Fish's Book” Derailed Democracy”.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Democracy & Russia1

Introduction1

Discussion2

Present Scenario2

Democratic Culture3

Bureaucracy & Domestic Politics4

Fish Perspective4

Media in Russia5

Danger to Media6

Corruption6

Conclusion8

References9

Democracy & Russia

Introduction

Democracy is a system to run the state like many others system which the world has seen in the past starting from Monarchy, Autocracy, Presidential form of government, Theocracy, Communism and many others, but the main difference which tends to separate democracy from other numerous systems to run the government and the state is its ability to make people powerful. Democracy tends to showcase that the supreme authority is with the people, they are responsible to elect people to run the affairs of the state, and therefore, each and every representative is accountable to them. People tend to exercise their power through the ballot under an independent electoral system. As discussed by the Fish, in his book that in the modern world the meaning and the interpretation of democracy has evolved over a period of time. Fish states that in the new world democracy is reflected as the popular control over the state, which means that the decisions took and policies made are not only in the interest f the public but those decisions are taken, and those policies are shaped up to brighten the future of the county which is demanded by the people or is as pr the wish of the people (Richard, 2011).

However, elections are not the only criteria when it comes to achieving democracy and, as a result, benefitting from its fruits. Steven Fish in his book has very effectively portrayed the reason which has, in fact, resulted in Russia's attempt to achieve democracy. Though he raised many suspicions about the system, but he highlighted three major factors which are hampering the Russia's progression towards an effective and efficient Democracy. Those being economic reforms, curse of resource wealth and a disempowered legislature. As per the requirements of this paper we will be analyzing Russia's progress from the year 2000 to the present, to attain the status of being called 'A Perfect Democratic State”.

Discussion

Present Scenario

Russia currently stands on 107th position among the 167 countries, which were included in the survey to gauge the level of democracy in each country. Russia rather not surprisingly was placed between K Kyrgyzstan and Nepal. The status which Russia achieved felt in the category of 'hybrid democracy' where the essentials like voting were fulfilled in order to save the face in front of the public. Another gauge to measure the democratic level of the country is its electoral system, Russia never had the best electoral system, but one which exists now has further slumped Russia's dream to become more democratic in ...