Ethnonationalism and Democratization in the Russian Federation

在后共产主义转型的所有挑战中，没有一项比民族民族主义的卷土重来更难以应对。南斯拉夫、捷克斯洛伐克和苏联的解体说明了开放政治舞台的风险。种族冲突的加剧突显出，主权主张可以很容易地跨越群体和地区，从中央蔓延到地区和地方政府。即使在国家解体涉及的暴力相对较少的情况下，就像苏联那样，这些冲突也引发了严重的问题，即多民族继承国能否完好无损地度过后共产主义转型。在俄罗斯，许多曾经解体苏联的问题现在都在挑战联邦政府。自由主义改革者已经开始将非民族主义视为对民主化的主要威胁--这不利于自由民主所需的宽容精神和对个人权利的关注。然而，在非俄罗斯领土上进行民族动员的程度和性质远不清楚，它与支持民主化的联系就更不清楚了。该项目审查了俄罗斯联邦三个地区：奥塞梯北部、鞑靼和萨哈的民族民族主义和对民主化的支持的性质和程度。将进行大规模调查，并在所有个别级别的答复中附上背景数据。该项目将产生一个包含3,000个个人访谈的数据集，以便在研究项目完成时存档。

Of all the challenges in post-communist transitions, none has been more difficult to manage than the resurgence of ethnonationalism. The unraveling of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and the USSR speaks of the risks of opening the political arena. The rise of ethnic conflicts underscores how easily claims for sovereignty can spread across groups and regions, and from central to regional and local governments. Even when the breakup of the state has involved relatively little violence, as in the USSR, the conflicts raise serious questions about whether multiethnic successor states can survive the post-communist transition intact. In Russia, many of the same problems that dissolved the Soviet Union now challenge the federal government. Liberal reformers have come to see ethnonationalism as a major threat to democratization -- inimical to the spirit of tolerance and the concern for individual rights that liberal democracy requires. Yet the level and character of ethnonational mobilization in non-Russian territories is far from clear and its connection to support for democratization even less so. This project examines the nature and level of ethnonationalism and support for democratization in three regions of the Russian Federation: Northern Ossetia, Tatarstan and Sakha. Mass surveys will be conducted and contextual data will be attached to all individual level responses. The project will produce a dataset of 3,000 individual interviews to be archived at the completion of the research project.