Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview
  • Imitation Democracy

  • The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System
  • By: Dmitrii Furman
  • Narrated by: Rich Miller
  • Length: 6 hrs and 9 mins
  • 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 rating)

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Imitation Democracy

By: Dmitrii Furman
Narrated by: Rich Miller
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia under Yeltsin and Putin implemented a political system of "imitation democracy," marked by "a huge disparity between formal constitutional principles and the reality of authoritarian rule." How did this system take shape, how else might it have developed, and what are the prospects for re-envisioning it more democratically in the future?

These questions animate Dmitrii Furman's Imitation Democracy, a welcome antidote to books that blandly decry Putin as an omnipotent dictator, without considering his platforms, constituencies, and sources of power. With extensive public opinion polling drawn from throughout the late- and post-Soviet period, Furman offers a definitive account of the formation of the modern Russian political system, casting it into powerful relief through comparisons with other post-Soviet states.

Peopled with grey technocrats, warring oligarchs, patriots, and provocateurs, Furman's narrative details the struggles among partisan factions, and the waves of public sentiment, that shaped modern Russia's political landscape, culminating in Putin's third presidential term, which resolves the contradiction between the "form" and "content" of imitation democracy, "the formal dependence of power on elections and the actual dependence of elections on power."

©2022 Translation copyright 2022 by Ian Dreiblatt; Foreword copyright 2022 by Keith Gessen; Afterword copyright 2022 by Tony Wood (P)2023 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

My Russia cover art
The French Revolution cover art
The Geopolitics of Emotion cover art
The Strategy of Denial cover art
The Lessons of Tragedy cover art
Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East cover art
Revolutions cover art
The Ukrainians (Fifth Edition) cover art
The Long Game cover art
Not One Inch cover art
The Avoidable War cover art
Spin Dictators cover art
Collapse cover art
Democracy Incorporated cover art
The Russian Revolution cover art
This Sovereign Isle cover art

What listeners say about Imitation Democracy

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1
  • 4 Stars
    0
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very interesting exploration of Russia in the 90s

I was a little skeptical of this book based on the title, which seems to condemn Russia's political system. But the work is very objective. According to the foreword, Furman was a Russian liberal who uncharacteristically looked for what his faction may have done wrong for the disasters of the 1990s, instead of trying to blame others. You learn a lot about Russia and the Russian political system. For example, that Western countries, 'democrats' and 'liberals' in Russia were complicit in Yeltsin's destruction of democracy because of their fear of communists, that the current Communist Party of Russia consists of third-rate forces from the Soviet era because most of the top echelons became wealthy capitalists. And that Putin, far from being an 'evil mastermind' who destroyed Rusisa's democracy, was just the logical culmination of the development of the 1990s. According to Furman, the same would have occurred under any of the other people Yeltsin was considering as his successor.

Some criticisms may include that the author seems to believe in some sort of Whig history, that societies inevitably develop towards "democracy". Also that there is no critical evaluation of the concept, or the question of whether Western countries advocating for it are actually ruled by the people. It may also be a little out of date, as it was written in 2009 (but it holds up well). But these are very minor flaws. The afterword by Tony Wood was also a little strange: it lacked the nuance and objectivity of Furman's work and even referred to the current war in Ukraine as the "criminal" invasion.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!