Research On Russian Interest Groups Evolution And Its Effects In Transition Period

Interest groups are intermediate organizations situated midway between countriesand individuals. The implementation of a good,"satisfactory" reform not only dependson the improvement of efficiency, but more importantly, on the balance of powerbetween the supportive and opposing forces. Today, China’s gradual reform is movingfrom periphery to center, the Russian experience of transition can serve as a uniquereference as to how to break the encirclement of vested interest groups, adhere to theoverall direction and continue to deepen the reform of economic marketization andpolitical democratization.More than70years of planned economic system and stable political order have bredin the Soviet Union the bureaucracy that obstructs the reform and have frozen theindependent production and management capacity of both individuals and enterprises.The social classes become cynic and apathetic and finally their emotions burst out. Thecollapse of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Soviet Communist Party seem tooccur overnight, however "Rome was not built in a day". From the perspective of a newpolitical economics and by adhering to "economic man", an assumption in economics,the dissertation places all interest groups of society in the periods of time from OctoberRevolution to Medvedev’s period which lasts for90years, and then it studies therelations between the interaction of interest groups and the institutional change as well asthe evolution of interest groups in a dynamic way, expecting to get beneficialenlightenment for the reform.The dissertation consists of seven parts, including the introduction. The introductionmainly introduces the purpose of research, literature review, research perspectives andmethods, theoretical tools and innovations. The main body of the dissertation is dividedinto six parts. At the end of each part, there is a brief summary or comment to summarizethe operation results of input variables at a given period and the output variables, whichserves as a link to the transition goals of the next historical period.Part One is about the research framework of the dissertation. Since the essentialcharacteristic of the interest groups is to pursue the group interests, the interest groups are divided into spontaneous interest group and self-conscious interest group, thus makingclear the direction of the group development and evolution. According to the specificsituation of Russia, the dissertation classifies the interest groups in Russian society intofive categories, that is, President, Central Federal District, local interest groups, ordinarycitizens groups and other active interest groups. The author sums up the way the interestgroup works and the role it plays, namely, economic impact, political voting and controlof public opinion. The effects that groups produce are examined through the comparisonof goals and results.Part Two studies the formation and accumulation of demands of interest groups inSoviet Union. The model of “Two-classes, one-layer” within the system is graduallydivided into two layers: the management group and the workers group. The managementgroup, especially the senior management, becomes the owner of vested interests. Afterbreaking away from the monitoring of powerful institutions, members of the Groupcollude with each other, safeguarding the interests of the Group. The demands ofinterests are not consistent in the upper and lower classes of the group. The upperbureaucratic group wants to break the shackles of system, turning management rights ofmeans of production into ownership; the lower bureaucratic group relies on the plannedeconomic system, and is increasingly dissatisfied with the narrower channels of gettingpromoted. To ordinary citizens groups, apart from the reducing of interests caused by thedecline in economic efficiency, more importantly, the rebound of the political pressurecreates great impact on the system. From Stalin, Khrushchev to Brezhnev’s reign, thelong-term accumulation of demands finds no way to release. So, it is inevitable that thetendency of radical transition finally occurs in the Gorbachev’s reign.Part Three studies interest groups in Yeltsin’s period. The radical democrats, led byBoris Yeltsin, did well in the game about the transition mode, and achieved victory in theelection. Choice of "shock therapy", and deviation from the original intention in theimplementation of "liberalization","stabilization" and "privatization" were both theresults of the interaction of interest groups. Recession of the country, the combination ofpublic political power and private capital, and political and economic chaos, all madepeople go from romanticism back to rational thinkingPart Four studies the interest groups in Putin’s period. Due to the state autonomy and the constraints of an absolute majority of votes from the ordinary people, manymeasures were adopted, such as the reconstruction of the tax system majesty under theconcept of "controlled market economy" and "controlled democracy", state capitalism,punishing oligarchs, vertical administrative management, protection of private propertyrights, and strengthening basic social security. However, official corruption, one-partydominance, and imbalance in industrial structure continued to plague Russia.Part Five deals with the interest groups in Medvedev’s period. Committing topromoting the transition process of “market” and “democracy”, Medvedev proposed theobjective of "modernization". The dissertation analyzes the reasons of the hugedifference between the results and the objectives from the angle of the configuration ofthe power of the president and the government, and the interaction between differentinterest groups.Part Six is the conclusion and enlightenments. The dissertation summarizes sixenlightenments such as the boundary of the interest group activities, the state autonomy,the convenience of centralized authoritarian tradition of the Heads of State, and theimportance of the neutrality.