Research On Transformation Of Russia: A Perspective Of Elitism

The Research on transformation of Russia has become a hot issue since thedisintegration of the Soviet Union. Scholars from China and foreign countries havedone a lot for Russia’s political transformation in the past20years, but research onRussia are on the macro-political transformation and economic institutional, theresearch on the micro-level political elite is much less. Russia’s politicaltransformation does not come to an end from Yeltsin to Putin, Russia is still facingwith the mission of economic development and state-building. How the political elitesplayed a role in the process of Russia’s political transformation, how does the politicalelites experience internal division and combination, what changes have taken place inthe Russian political elites after the second ruling of Putin, are what the paper want toexplore.The political and economic transformation happened in the Soviet Union andEastern Europe started from the failure of economic and social governance. Thebeginning of transformation is a farewell to the old regime and the establishment of aWestern-style political system. As the main successor of the Soviet Russia, it’s of veryrepresentative significance in the study of post-communist countries in politicaltransition.It is generally believed that the the origin of political transition of Russia is the Gorbachev administration, after the reform of two president Yeltsin andPutin, Russia has initially established the new democratic political system. Due to thelack of democratic political culture in Russian history and time advantage ofearly industrialized countries, so we can see its political transition is marked withstrong elite-leading. Value-judgment and strategic-choice of political elites oftendetermines the path of political transition and the final results, the politicaltransformation of major non-western countries of is also a political choosing processof political elite. Therefore, it is of great significance on the perspectiveof political elites in Russia’s political transition research.Many scholars in China and abroad research on the influence of traditional elitetheory, combining elite theory into the research on political transition, then a newstrategic choice paradigm came to the research of political transition. In the view ofstrategic choice paradigm, political research is the study of the political elite, theprocess and results of political transition determines from political elite’s realisticinterests and strategic decision.The political actors in democratic transition can be fully play their own initiative,and lead the political system (including the constitutional framework, the electoralsystem, and Party System)to create a more suitable for democratic transition anddemocratic consolidation system. Few people would deny the role of institution. Theeffective institution can even promote the development of democratic transition andmodernization of economic and political culture, in order to provide more positivefactors for democratic consolidation. State-building is an urgent task for the countriesin transition; its essence is institution-building, which is also the responsibility ofpoliticians.This paper is divided into three parts; the first chapter focuses on thedevelopment of elitism and its evolution through the elitist literature review, exploringthe development and changes of elitism.The second chapter analyzes the correlation between the political elite and thepolitical transformation of Russia. The elite-ruling is inevitable whether indemocracies or non-democracies, even in western democracies, the elite-ruling is also a common phenomenon. Elite-ruling is very supportive among the Russian, not onlybecause Russia is still in the process of transformation, but also the politicallegitimacy has been improved since the transformation started. Russian hope the leadof the Russian political elite can successfully complete the political transformation ingeneral.The third chapter analyzes the changes of political elite in the power structureand value orientation during the Yeltsin era and the Putin era, research more on theinfluence of transformation led by Russian political elite. Finally, look into the futurefor Russia’s political transformation, Russia’s aggressive transformation requirespolitical elite to stay in power, to complete the construction of Russia’s domesticinstitutions and state-building.