How could an undemocratic regime manage to stabilise Russia? What is Putin's success formula?
What are the symbolic and discursive underpinnings of Russia's new stability? Many outside
observers of Russia regarded the authoritarian tendencies during the Putin presidency as a
retreat from or even the end of democratisation. Rather than attempting to explain why Russia
did not follow the trajectory of democratic transformation this book aims to attain an
understanding of the stabilisation process during Putin's tenure as president. Proceeding from
the assumption that the stability created under Putin is multi-layered the authors attempt to
uncover the underpinnings of the new equilibrium inquiring especially about the changes and
fixations that occurred in the discourses on political and national identity. In doing so the
authors analyse the trajectories of the past years from the traditional perspective of
transitology as well as through the lens of post-structuralist discourse theory. The two
approaches are seen as complementary with the latter focusing less on the end point of
transition than on the nature of the mechanisms that stabilise the current regime. The book
therefore focuses on how nationalism became an increasingly important tool in political
discourse and how it affected political identity. Sovereign democracy is seen by many
contributors as the most explicit manifestation of a newfound post-Soviet identity drawing on
nationalist ideas while simultaneously appeasing most sectors of the Russian political
spectrum.
