Телеграм канал «Политическая теория и философия (Political theory and philosophy)»

Gulnaz Sharafutdinova - Political Consequences of Crony Capitalism inside Russia

This book examines the coexistence of crony capitalism and traditionally democratic institutions such as political competition and elections in Russia after the collapse of communism. The combination, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova argues, has produced a distinct pattern of political evolution in contemporary Russia. Elections are meant to ensure government accountability and allow voters to elect a government responsive to their needs, but in postcommunist Russia the institutional forms of democracy did not result in the expected outcomes. Instead, democratic institutions in the context of crony capitalism in which informal elite groups dominate policy making, and preferential treatment from the state, not market forces, is crucial to amassing and holding wealth were widely devalued and discredited.

As Sharafutdinova demonstrates, especially through her close scrutiny of elections in two regions of Russia, Nizhnii Novgorod and the Republic of Tatarstan, crony capitalism made elections especially intense struggles among the elites. Massive amounts of money flowed into campaigns to promote candidates by discrediting their rivals, money purchased candidates and power, and elites thereby solidified their control. As a result, the majority of citizens perceived elections as the means for the elite to access power and wealth rather than as expressions of public will. Through her detailed case studies and her analyses of contemporary Russia in general, Sharafutdinova argues persuasively that the turn toward authoritarianism associated with Vladimir Putin and supported by a majority of Russian citizens was a negative political response to the interaction of electoral processes and crony capitalism.

Quentin Deluermoz - The Paris Commune: A Global History

The Paris Commune as a world revolutionary event that crossed from Paris to Algeria and then New York and was the laboratory for all the republican and socialist ideas of a century

From 1871, this book shows, the Paris Commune (March-May 1871) was a global event. The Parisian revolution was quickly appropriated in Europe and beyond, from Mexico City to Algiers, bringing together the many voices of 'global radicalism' of the time. Combining history, anthropology and the sociology of crises and revolutions, Quentin Deluermoz also follows the revolution in the making, on the Parisian street corner, from the perspective of ordinary men and women. And it takes up the old and terribly delicate question, in the century of 'modernity', of its temporalities, both short and long, continuous and discontinuous.

References to the Paris Commune (March-May 1871) have resurfaced over the last twenty years in a number of social and political struggles in France, the United States, Spain, Mexico and in Rojava. This resurgence has its roots in the long imperial and global history of the twentieth century, particularly anarchist and communist history. But it also comes from further back and refers to sometimes forgotten meanings of socialism, federalism and republicanism . Continuing the immense work carried out over more than 150 years, this book restores in a new way the intensity of the 'Commune moment', and provides tools for understanding its enduring relevance in today's world.

Григорий Бакус - Голос для канувших в Лету

Карло Гинзбург: историк как рассказчик

Труды недавно скончавшегося итальянского историка Карло Гинзбурга внесли очень заметный вклад в современную историографию, они еще долго будут служить источником ценных идей и наблюдений и предметом для научных дискуссий. Свой взгляд на его работы, посвященные охоте на ведьм в Западной Европе, представляет Григорий Бакус, научный сотрудник ИНИОН РАН.

https://gorky.media/context/golos-dlya-kanuvshix-v-letu

Axel Cherniavsky - Deleuze, Philosophy and the Creation of Concepts

One feature of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy is its effort to establish connections with other disciplines and to appeal to non-philosophers. However, Deleuze never establishes these connections without a constant and unconditional reaffirmation of the uniqueness of philosophy. How does he conceive of philosophy? What are its elements? What are its methods? How is philosophy connected to other fields of knowledge and other activities? Axel Cherniavsky provides an answer to these questions by analysing the definition of philosophy Deleuze gives throughout his entire oeuvre: creation of concepts. Through this analysis, you will discover a reconstruction of a creative methodology, a detailed theory of the philosophical concept, a reflection on interdisciplinarity and altogether one of the most precise and systematic conceptions that philosophy has ever given of itself.