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

Giovanni Sartori - Social science concepts: a systematic analysis (1984)

Giovanni Sartori offers an in-depth examination of how concepts are defined and used in social sciences. Sartori explores the challenges of conceptualization, emphasizing the importance of clarity and precision in the development and application of social science terms. He addresses common pitfalls like ambiguity and inconsistency, advocating for a more rigorous and systematic approach to concept analysis. Through a detailed examination of the process of conceptualization, Sartori provides guidance on enhancing the quality and consistency of research in the social sciences, making this book a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners aiming to improve the reliability and validity of their work.

Martin K. Dimitrov - Dictatorship and Information. Authoritarian Regime Resilience in Communist Europe and China

Fear pervades dictatorial regimes. Citizens fear leaders, the regime's agents fear superiors, and leaders fear the masses. The ubiquity of fear in such regimes gives rise to the "dictator's dilemma," where autocrats do not know the level of opposition they face and cannot effectively neutralize domestic threats to their rule. The dilemma has led scholars to believe that autocracies are likely to be short-lived.Yet, some autocracies have found ways to mitigate the dictator's dilemma. As Martin K. Dimitrov shows in Dictatorship and Information, substantial variability exists in the survival of nondemocratic regimes, with single-party polities having the longest average duration. Offering a systematic theoryof the institutional solutions to the dictator's dilemma, Dimitrov argues that single-party autocracies have fostered channels that allow for the confidential vertical transmission of information, while also solving the problems associated with distorted information.To explain how this all works, Dimitrov focuses on communist regimes, which have the longest average lifespan among single-party autocracies and have developed the most sophisticated information-gathering institutions. Communist regimes face a variety of threats, but the main one is the masses. Dimitrov therefore examines the origins, evolution, and internal logic of the information-collection ecosystem established by communist states to monitor popular dissent. Drawing from a rich base of evidence across multiple communist regimes and nearly 100 interviews, Dimitrov reshapes ourunderstanding of how autocrats learn or fail to learn about the societies they rule, and how they maintain or lose power.

Mark B. Smith - Exit Stalin: The Soviet Union as a Civilization, 1953-1991

With Stalin's death, the Soviet Union remained a repressive, harsh and belligerent place, but one which became more predictable for its citizens and one which made a genuine attempt to create the egalitarian, progressive country that the Russian Revolution had once promised. That this attempt would fail was not clear until the 1980s. Mark B. Smith's remarkable book recreates the day-to-day life of this vast state, the largest ever to exist. What was life like in a country which made such absolute claims for the future, which claimed to be on its way to creating a people's utopia and which, like the USA, owned enough atomic weapons to end human life on Earth?

Exit Stalin is filled with extraordinary stories about those who lived in the USSR and the distinctive and functioning civilization that they built. Many of them embraced its values, understood its goals and could not imagine life outside such a vastly ambitious and progressive project. The shortages, coercion and incompetence that underlay the USSR and which by the late 1980s would doom it has to be understood alongside the acceptance it always had from many of its citizens. And this in turn is a crucial issue for understanding Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union in the 21st century.