CC BY
13
K. Gadzhiyev,
D. Sc. (Hist.) (Institute of World Economy
and International Relations, RAS)
THE NATURE OF POLITICAL REGIMES OF NATIONAL
REPUBLICS OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS
One of the key factors negatively influencing the situation in the North Caucasus is the complex and unresolved character of socioeconomic problems. The forms and methods of the implementation of economic transformations in most national republics have an essential impact on the life of their people. The privatization of state property has been carried out with gross violations of the law and under control and in favor of representatives of the party-economic and nomenklatura groupings, as well as criminal and semi-criminal communities. The actual monopolization of property, which formerly belonged to the state, has been carried out by representatives of certain ethnic groups. This brought about sharp social differentiation, and the emergence of poor and rich nationalities and national groups.
The "shadow" (or black-market) economy has been playing a considerable role in the North Caucasus. It has always been distinguished by a very high level of corruption, especially among highly-placed government officials, from Soviet times. During the present period it became an effective system of the redistribution of finances.
The desire to explain all failures and evils in the North Caucasus -high criminality, frequent conflicts and acts of terror by poverty, unemployment and other purely economic and social factors is not always correct. Of course, favorable socio-economic conditions, material well-being and higher living standards are the sine qua non for social and political stability. But as world and Russian experience shows, this is really the necessary, but definitely inadequate, condition.
One can name many countries, and also regions of Russia, for that matter, which are poorer than the North Caucasus, but the situation there is not poisoned by frequent conflicts, crime and terrorism as much as in the North Caucasian republics.
One of the key reasons for the situation existing in the national republics of the North Caucasus should be sought in the nature of their political regimes. Naturally, the region as part of the Russian Federation could not stay aside from the radical transformations going on in the country during the time of reforms. Democratic constitutions were adopted, the principles of the market economy introduced, and the division of power into three branches - legislative, executive and legal was carried out.
Despite all this, it cannot be said that the political elite of the national republics have finally eliminated all "birthmarks" of the Soviet system and certain specific features inherent in the mentality of the peoples of the region, which hamper the formation process of the values, institutions and relations of civil society and political democracy.
Unfortunately, the basic institutions, principles and standards of political democracy and law-abiding state fixed in the constitutions of these national republics have not been able to play the role they should in democratic society. Quite frequently, the division of power into three branches - legislative, executive and legal has a formal character, inasmuch as in reality they are suppressed by the will and whims of the heads of republics.
In the post-Soviet area, particularly in the national republics of the Russian Federation, the modernization of political regimes began with the legitimization of the election procedure of legislative assemblies and heads of administration. However, the absence of a politically educated electorate and the presence of election candidates
having no rudiments of parliamentary activity (and is still worse, having only Soviet experience of command-administrative work) led to the situation when power in most national republics remained in the hands of the former communist elite. Due to this and some other factors connected with it, the constitutional political and state institutions could be called democratic only formally.
True, it can safely be said that in the modern world any form of state structure cannot exist in a pure form. The well-known American political analyst R. Dahl was right in saying that all political regimes existing in the world can be placed between the two poles - autocracy and democracy. If applied to national republics, the problem is not whether these or other regimes are democratic, but to what pole they gravitate and in what direction they develop. In this connection it is not accidental that in determining democratic or semi-democratic regimes that have emerged during the past two or three decades in the postSoviet area and in a number of developing countries the term "new democracies" has been used to describe regimes combining specific features, which distinguish them from the traditional models of the political system which entrenched itself in western countries. According to the autocracy - democracy scale, most national republics in the Russian Federation are nearer to the first pole. It can safely be said that not a single national republic in its development has reached the "democratic shore." Having achieved definite results, they are still in the process of transformation, and democracy as such seems something ideal and far away.
One of the specific features of the political culture of the North Caucasian peoples, just as the entire Caucasus, is their adherence to group, kinship, and collectivist standards and values. Most of them are distinguished by ethnic and professional corporative feelings, high degree of personalization of politics, authoritarianism, and a great role
of traditional values. This is why there is nothing surprising that the political regimes of the North Caucasian republics are of a hybrid character, intricately combining certain elements of the Soviet type, and modern variants of authoritarianism and democracy.
The ethnonational factor also plays a major role and quite often breeds conflicts. The point is that in the national republics of the Russian Federation in most cases representatives of the so-called title nation, or title ethnos, take the highest state posts, leaving less important ones to national minorities. As a result, new elitist groups have come into being on the ethnic basis, which monopolized the levers of power for the promotion and realization of their own economic and political interests.
Such situation breeds contradictions and conflicts between clans and groupings which often bear an ethnic character. This phenomenon can be defined as the process of ethnopolitical mobilization whose result is the politicization of the ethnic component of the North Caucasian area, which threatens the social and political stability of society and the territorial integrity of the state. An impression is created that a definite part of powerful elites in certain national republics is directly interested in maintaining socio-political instability, which they can control, and this enables them to receive greater means from the budget of the Federal Center.
Experience shows that the "forcible" component in the south of Russia is one of the major instruments of political struggle. Both the opposition and the official authorities do not always know how to use the political means of struggle. The authorities more often try to get rid of the opposition with the help of the stick, and more rarely with the help of the carrot. Many oppositionists became loyal to the ruling regimes after receiving lucrative posts. A factor causing great concern is the growing tendency to the actual merger of mafia-clan groupings
with government bodies, penetration of organized crime in state power, and turning the region into a seat of political terrorism. According to the available data, trans-Caucasian criminal groupings have entrenched themselves in some of the North Caucasian republics - Chechnya, Ingushetia, Northern Ossetia and Daghestan. Underground production of and trade in oil products, valuable fish and caviar, alcohol, etc., as well as illegal gambling, are thriving there.
One of the manifestations of the deep crisis of power in the region is a very high level of corruption of the local ruling elites and their staggering professional incompetence. Corruption and practically open trade in high posts have become quite ordinary phenomena and ceased to cause a negative reaction and censure in society. For instance, it would be well-nigh impossible to get a job at a government body or in the police department without a bribe amounting to $1,000 at a minimum.
Corruption has corroded the educational system through and through, which cannot but evoke deep concern Places at higher educational establishments have long become objects of buy-and-sell. Cases are not rare when good marks at exams can be got for a definite sum. The mass media are not averse to selling their space or time for publication or broadcast of specially designed or ordered material. All this creates additional problems in the way of reaching socio-political stability in the region.
It should be admitted that the federal authorities in the North Caucasus are not able to combine effectively enough the interests of the Federal Center and those of the local authorities. This is shown by the fact that the present North Caucasian elites demonstrate exceptional abilities in staging political intrigues at local and federal levels, as well as distributing the financial means coming from the Federal Center.
An impression is created that the federal authorities either do not wield power in the region properly enough, or prefer to close their eyes to and neglect or ignore the inability and corrupt practices of the local authorities. This can be explained by the fact that the policy of the Federal Center toward the national republics of the North Caucasus is dominated by the trend to support the regional clan groupings formally loyal to Moscow. Naturally, the republican authorities "repay their debt" by giving all-out support to people put forward by the federal authorities for regional elections. This is expressed, among other things, by the fact that at the all-Russia presidential and parliamentary elections the local authorities provide the candidates from the ruling party with the overwhelming number of votes. Such policy of reliance on the ruling groupings and clans forces Moscow to pardon or ignore the abuse of the regional elites loyal to it. Besides, reliable data are available that many North Caucasian criminal groupings and clans are secretly given cover from Moscow.
However, the price of such "comfort" is too high. In recent years the leadership of Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Karachay-Cercessia and Daghestan have demonstrated their inability to undertake resolute actions or simply control the situation in their own republics. They are unable to oppose effectively the terrorist and criminal groupings active in their republics. From this point of view an especially important role is played by the absence of the proper legitimization of the ruling elites. It can even be said that they do not have any moral-psychological legitimization.
In this context it should be admitted with regret that the administrative reforms of the 2000, which could possibly be regarded justified from the point of view of restoring the vertical of power, have not given the expected results conformably to the North Caucasian realities so far. The heart of the matter is that the reforms have not
solved a number of problems determining the character and the main aspects of the development of the region. True, in recent years important changes have taken place in the leadership of a number of national republics. But on the whole, this rotation has been made within the framework of the already existing mechanism of the formation and functioning of the system of power, which has already demonstrated its "lameness."
It should also be taken into account that the institution of donations to the parts of the Federation from the federal budget which has, perhaps, played a positive role previously, has now gone out of date and needs serious revision. Direct donations of federal means to the local budget lead to a colossal growth of corruption, which has by itself become a great factor of instability. Paradoxical as it might seem, but certain representatives of the ruling upper crust of individual republics are simply not interested in overcoming their financial weakness. This aspect is especially important in the light of the fact that all republics of the North Caucasus, without exception, receive financial donations from the Federal Center. It is indicative that one of the most depressive parts of the Russian Federation - the Republic of Daghestan - was a donor-region before the 1990s. (!) At present, the distribution of the federal financial means has become a rather lucrative business for the local ruling elites. The very system of the budget financing of North Caucasus is so non-transparent that it gives serious grounds to believe that corruption in the region begins in the very center of Moscow. In the view of the chairman of the Anti-corruption Committee of the North Caucasus S. Umarov, the existing situation in the region is a direct consequence of the model of ensuring loyalty of the North Caucasian elites formed by the Federal Center in the early 1990s. Their loyalty and neutralization of separatist tendencies is for the leadership of the national republics a guarantee of the absence of
any control over their spending of the budget means and their domestic policy in the republics. In turn, the impunity of republican officials in their relations with the Federal Center brings corruption at the local level to fantastic dimensions. The "trade in posts" has acquired such scope that every second official or employee of the law-enforcement agency should, first of all, think of how to compensate the money paid for the job. Apparently, the representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the North Caucasian Federal district, Alexander Khloponin, was unable to establish control over the flows of the federal financial means due to the strong resistance of the regional leaders. In any case, one can hardly say, judging by the real state of affairs in the region, that any tangible progress has been reached in any spheres of life in the North Caucasus under his guidance. As to donations, they should be discontinued in their present form, and part of them should be used for raising pensions and salaries, and also curtailing, or even lifting taxes on small businesses, at least for a definite period of time. This would, naturally, contribute to increasing the purchasing power of the population, thus providing an incentive to the regional economy.
Taking into account the above-said, one should not ignore another reality. The knot of unresolved problems facing the region is so big and complex that both the federal and republican authorities are almost always tempted to postpone their solution fearing to aggravate the situation still more. There is the real threat that the dismantling or attempts to revise or restructure the ethnoclan system of power will inevitably entail a difficult and, perhaps, even bloody repartition of power and property. In other words, the republics will find themselves in a vicious circle from which there is no worthy way out so far.
If the present tendencies are projected to the future, it will hardly be possible to regard the state of affairs as something having already passed the point of no return, inasmuch as the basic conflict-breeding
factors characteristic of the region during the recent two decades still retain their significance. Touching on the question of the possibilities and prospects of separatism and the formation of new state entities outside Russia, or contrary to its will, it should be noted that at present there are no significant horizontal or vertical economic, social, political or other ties between the national republics of the North Caucasus. Each republic is closely and unbreakably connected with Russia, but not together, not as some uniform economic, political, cultural or other area, but each one individually. Political life is kept itself close at the level of parts of the federation, with insufficient development of supra-and sub-regional levels. This conditions the existence of considerable difficulties for their integration, which, in turn, adds significance to the elaboration of scientifically substantiated development projects of ties in the political, economic and cultural spheres between the republics and regions of the North Caucasus, overcoming the closed character of political and socio-economic life of individual regions-parts of the federation and creation of a complex system of containment and counter-balances.
Nevertheless, the process of political modernization in the Caucasus - in the national republics of the North Caucasus and the newly-independent states of the South Caucasus - should not be assessed in a simple, "black-and-white" light. As is known, the key condition for the success of social and economic reforms is political stability making it possible to reform society without serious collisions. As to national republics, what strikes the eye is the weak social base of systemic political parties and movements, the weakness and absence of structure of the middle sections of society, the absence of united and influential opposition capable to serve as the real counter-balance to official power, etc. The opposition, as a rule, has been pushed back to marginal positions and is deprived of opportunities to participate in
political life. As it has been noted, this can be explained by the specific features of the political culture of the Caucasian peoples.
It should also be taken into account that the formation and institutionalization of democratic values, establishments and relations is a very complex and difficult process requiring a long period of time -sometimes even several generations. This process can proceed with backward movement, and periods of rapid progress can be replaced with stages of retardation, which are characterized by the accumulation of quantitative changes which can ultimately lead to qualitative ones. Besides, as the experience of the post-Soviet countries shows, such features of democracy as universal electoral right, parliamentarianism, etc. are unable to lead always to the desired results and cannot resolve all problems facing society. Here we observe, on the one hand, attempts to adapt the structures of the Soviet authoritarian system to new conditions, and on the other, the trends of the formation and establishment of new ideas and approaches, institutions, mechanisms and relations.
«Mir i. politika», Moscow, 2011, N 9, pp. 7-17.
Dmitri Kotelenko,
Ph. D. (Political Sciences) (ISEGI UNC, RAS) ISLAMIC FACTOR IN THE CONTEXT OF SECURITY OF THE NORTH CAUCASUS
Religious challenges to power can be regarded as attempts to dispute the monopoly of the state in the distribution of basic values in society. The main manifestations of the Islamic factor which influence the socio-political situation in the South of Russia can conditionally be determined as follows: 1) the problem of socio-cultural dissociation between peoples and confessions; 2) aggravation of the existing and
