Federalism and Local Politics in Russia
Federalism and Local Politics in Russia
Federalism and Local Politics in Russia
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34 Michael Burgess‘federalism’ <strong>and</strong> ‘federation’, a dist<strong>in</strong>ction orig<strong>in</strong>ally <strong>in</strong>troduced <strong>in</strong>to thema<strong>in</strong>stream literature by Preston K<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> 1982. 26 Consequently we mustestablish what we mean by federalism <strong>and</strong> federation <strong>and</strong> how these conceptswill be used <strong>in</strong> what follows. I take federalism to mean the recommendation<strong>and</strong> (sometimes) the active promotion of support for federation. Afederation is a particular k<strong>in</strong>d of state. It is ‘a dist<strong>in</strong>ctive organizational formor <strong>in</strong>stitutional fact the ma<strong>in</strong> purpose of which is to accommodate the constituentunits of a union <strong>in</strong> the decision-mak<strong>in</strong>g procedure of the centralgovernment by means of constitutional entrenchment’. 27The relationship between federalism <strong>and</strong> federation is complex becausefederalism <strong>in</strong>forms federation <strong>and</strong> vice versa. And there are many federalismsthat differ widely <strong>in</strong> their content. They reflect different constellations<strong>and</strong> configurations of cleavage patterns that reflect dist<strong>in</strong>ct values, <strong>in</strong>terests<strong>and</strong> identities both <strong>in</strong> a territorial <strong>and</strong> a non-territorial sense. Like federation,federalism is rooted <strong>in</strong> context so that <strong>in</strong> order to underst<strong>and</strong> eachfederalism we must locate the concept <strong>in</strong> its own dist<strong>in</strong>ct sett<strong>in</strong>g: historical,cultural, <strong>in</strong>tellectual, philosophical, social, economic, legal <strong>and</strong> ideological.In this way we can beg<strong>in</strong> to appreciate its huge multidimensional complexities.<strong>Federalism</strong> constitutes the socio-political reality of difference <strong>and</strong>diversity, of the variety of <strong>in</strong>terests <strong>and</strong> identities that mobilize to seek genu<strong>in</strong>eautonomy, representation <strong>and</strong> participation <strong>in</strong> federation. Federation,too, is similarly complex <strong>and</strong> contextual. As tangible <strong>in</strong>stitutional fact, itcannot be reduced to the mere end product of federalism. We do not move <strong>in</strong>a simple straight l<strong>in</strong>e from federalism to federation. Federation itself is governedby purpose, what K<strong>in</strong>g calls ‘conscious self-direction’; it acts uponfederalism, help<strong>in</strong>g to shape <strong>and</strong> reshape both its expression <strong>and</strong> its goals.The relationship between federalism <strong>and</strong> federation is therefore symbiotic;each imp<strong>in</strong>ges on the other <strong>in</strong> an unend<strong>in</strong>g fashion.The application of this conceptual analysis to the <strong>Russia</strong>n Federationimmediately calls our attention to the relationship between federalism, federation<strong>and</strong> liberal democratic constitutionalism. In the first place this particularconceptual approach would take issue with previous statements suggest<strong>in</strong>gthat the Soviet Union was ‘a federation without federalism’. 28 On the contrary,the USSR certa<strong>in</strong>ly had federalism – <strong>in</strong> the sense def<strong>in</strong>ed above of itsconspicuous ethno-territorialism as identity politics – which was, as we haveseen, the very raison d’etre of federation <strong>in</strong> 1922. But it was not an authenticfederal state. To adopt the structural trapp<strong>in</strong>gs of a federation as an expedientwithout them be<strong>in</strong>g firmly embedded <strong>in</strong> a liberal democratic state thatcomb<strong>in</strong>ed a written constitution with the rule of law <strong>and</strong> embraced localautonomy rooted <strong>in</strong> a division of powers between the central government<strong>and</strong> the constituent authorities, guaranteed free, fair <strong>and</strong> regular competitiveelections based upon the secret ballot <strong>and</strong> political choice among freelyformed political parties together with an <strong>in</strong>dependent judicial system <strong>and</strong>representative political <strong>in</strong>stitutions, was merely to construct a façade.Consequently the Soviet Union was an example of federalism without federation.