The Russian Transformation: a New Form of Etacratism?

There are two major approaches to the interpretation and understanding of transformation processes. First, according to a Eurocentric approach, these processes develop in a single line with the inner logics of the one-way unitary transition from non-market economy to market economy. Hegel’s scheme of a ’step-type’ development of history towards a single ideal for all mankind has influenced the denial of multilinearity in the development of particular societies by both Marxists and liberals. It also suggests development without alternatives. At the same time countries and nations are allocated to different ‘echelons’ (at different stages) of movement towards a single ideal — towards a universal Western democracy and liberal capitalism. Linear understanding of human development evolved in a classical theory of modernization epitomized in the work of W.W. Rostow and Talcott Parsons.