Heterarchy: Russian politics between chaos and control

Richard Sakwa

Post-Soviet Affairs, 2021, vol. 37, issue 3, 222-241

Abstract: Russian governance is a dynamic combination of horizontal and vertical factors. Heterarchy suggests that elements of an organization are not necessarily hierarchical (not ranked), and that they have the potential to be ranked in a number of different ways. Three levels to the system are identified: the macro (where the four major ideological-interest groups of Russian modernity are located); the meso (encompassing the various corporate, regional, and institutional actors as well as social organizations); and the micro (the personalities and networks in the current constellation of power). Vladimir Putin’s statecraft represents a distinctive response to the problem of heterarchy. Putin’s control mechanisms have reproduced features of the late Soviet “stability system,” which in the end proved far from stable. The regime-state is designed to constrain the socio-political reality of heterarchy, but “Hobbesian” mechanical stability impedes the development of more organic and adaptive “Lockean” forms of political integration and societal management. The contradiction between chaos and control is not resolved and has become constitutive of the post-communist Russian polity.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/1060586X.2020.1871269 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rpsaxx:v:37:y:2021:i:3:p:222-241

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/rpsa20

DOI: 10.1080/1060586X.2020.1871269

Access Statistics for this article

Post-Soviet Affairs is currently edited by Timothy Frye

More articles in Post-Soviet Affairs from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().