Comparative Politics - Research Paper Example

Comparative Politics The attempt to differentiate between the political systems of countries worldwide by examining their similarities and differences is referred to as comparative politics. Comparative politics particularly involves studying the different political systems to determine the principals that govern the political patterns, regularities and processes. The aim of this study is to create various hypotheses explaining the political systems to determine why some countries are poor than others, why the richer countries tend to be more democratic than the poor ones and why some countries are more developed among other facts (Almond et al.1-38). Democracy can be perceived as equality and liberty. A democratic nation is liberal thereby allowing its citizens to have the power to rule it, to be equal before the law and have equal access to the law. Elections are periodically held to choose representatives for the governmental body that will exercise its supreme power. The distinctive principles of democracy include freedom of speech, press and political expression. Sovereignty on the other hand refers to a body that has independent power over people. A sovereign state can be regarded as having absolute authority of lawmaking (Almond et al. 101-120). Russia for a long time had been ruled by the Soviet Union using communism which attained its down fall in 1991. Thereafter, the United Russia party led by Russian Executive President Vladimir Putin introduced sovereign democracy in the Russian regime. However, the “sovereign democracy” practiced in Russian does not emanate democratic principles, a fact that has placed Vladimir Putin’s political program under constant criticism (Almond et al. 355). According to Economist Intelligent Unit, the United Russian presidential political party aims at increasing its power of the international exchange system. The party intends to strengthen its powers to control the economic, political and administrative structure. The Russian doctrine of “sovereign democracy” emanates principles that are in contrast with democratic principles such as restrictions in the mass media and citizen’s freedom (Almond et al. 356). The Russian democracy can therefore be viewed as managed democracy because the Russian political system is strictly supervised and regulated thereby denying Russian citizens freedom of expressing their political will. Although this fact is highly denied by the Russian authority for instance Vladislav Surkov who is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office and advisor of the president as he provides analytical and organizational information which is crucial to the president insists that the Russian political system is governed by sovereign democracy (Almond et al. 356). According to the Russian doctrine of Sovereign democracy no one can make attest to owning or having power over the Russian nation as explained in the Russian constitution. However, critically looking at the idea imposed by the Russian constitution the concept behind sovereign democracy can be viewed as nationalism. Russia perceives its state to be more superior than other states therefore it is ready to impose radical political force over other states if it senses any signs of threat. This means that Russia is a powerful nation which is not ready to be influenced by global monopolies or dictatorship (Almond et al. 362-370). Therefore, Russia can be perceived as indirectly opposing worldwide globalization which is encouraged by the western countries especially the United States. However, according to Surkov the doctrine of Russian sovereign democracy aims at first prioritizing the interests of the country. This can be depicted in the economic, social and cultural success that the country has gained in the global politics. Russia has managed to restore its governance in the Chechen republic. Also the Russian legislation is in accordance to the Russian constitution, a fact that is depicted by the end of separatist actions in the country (Almond et al. 362-370). Moreover, the country has managed to offset most of its international debts, a paradigm which seemed impossible to achieve a few years ago. Russia has also been able to identify mutual understanding and cooperation with some highly economical influential countries such as China because of its success in diversifying its foreign policy. Furthermore, the nation has strengthened the defense capability of the country, improved its nuclear deterrence potential, restored competence in combat training and created space defenses (Almond et al. 394). With the implementation of sovereign democracy principles in the Russian nation led to a change in the electoral reforms where the control over civil societies and political parties was tightened and abolishment of elections, media, public relations and youth projects used to appoint governors. Therefore, the society has absolutely no control over the authorities. The strength of the presidential system has been strengthened over the expense of the parliament, judiciary and business structures thereby weakening them. The legitimacy of these institutions has been changed from dependent to independent enabling the president to easily control them. Their actions are monitored and regulated by the presidential decree (Almond et al. 374-381). The presidential systems controls and monitors the electoral systems for checking and gathering signatures. The candidate must report its campaign financial technicalities, volumes, property and profit to the president. Various rules have been enforced to act as a guideline for selecting candidates, election commissions, courts and law enforcement agencies. Therefore, the president has the right to manipulate the election results. This leads to the re-election of the Kremlin candidates that are supporters of the presidential party. The doctrine of Russian sovereign democracy mandates that it is compulsory for all eligible citizens to vote (Almond et al. 374-381). However, they must show great support to the president and his party. Thus there is no freedom in the election process for example the St. Petersburg and Chechnya incident where the candidates that had high poll values than the Kremlin’s candidates were prevented from participating in the election. In the end the effectiveness of the regional economies drastically decreases. The presidential system also has power over the media thereby preventing it from providing information to the public to enable them to form their own opinion. The presidential system also controls the media by designating the information that it must release to the public under monitored doses. Due to lack of public freedom those in power use the sovereign democracy for their own selfish gains (Almond et al. 374-381). Russian sovereign democracy can also be viewed as capitalistic kleptocracy. Kleptocracy is governing a country or nation with the aim of benefiting oneself through material gain. Russia has implemented genuine fundamentals of market economy only for the aim of benefiting. By so doing the Russian authorities can freely engage in activities that are against free market and the independent judicial legal systems. Therefore, they easily steal from the budgetary funds and grants among other financial sources (Almond et al. 391-394). The Russian authorities have also devised tactics that enable them to evade the tax payment systems. The government’s corruption can also be depicted by the implementation of non market driven mechanisms that the state controlled companies use to influence the global market. Owners of the private domestic companies have to bribe the government officials to be able to benefit from the economies of the global market. This has contributed to the unwillingness, inability and lack of innovation of effective long term development in the nation. For instance the Russian energy sector has suffered a great deal because of this mishap. Thus the government officials are able to amass a lot of wealth leaving the public in a devastated position. This explains the large gap that is observed between the rich and the poor (Almond et al. 391-394). To overcome this predicament and let democracy prevail, the Russian authority should decentralize and re-federalize the political system to increase its stability and flexibility. The government should use the media to communicate with the public by reinstating freedom of the press. This will reinstate power to the federal, local and regional authorities rather than allowing the president to have absolute control of power. The Russian legislation should also be revised to allow existence of opposition parties which will occupy parliamentary seats. They will thus be able to challenge the rule of the presidential party which will improve the rule of governance in the nation. Russia will thus be in a better position to enjoy the economies of the global market and implement globalization effectively. Democracy will therefore make the country enjoy economic, social, administrative and political dependence it strives for. Works Cited Almond. A. Gabriel, Powell. G. Bingham, Dalton. J. Russell and Storm, Kaare. Comparative Politics Today: A Theoretical Framework.9th Ed. Columbus, OH: Pearson/Longman, 2007. Read More