The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy

Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Political Science, Government, Democracy
Cover of the book The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy by Metta Spencer, Lexington Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Metta Spencer ISBN: 9780739144749
Publisher: Lexington Books Publication: July 10, 2012
Imprint: Lexington Books Language: English
Author: Metta Spencer
ISBN: 9780739144749
Publisher: Lexington Books
Publication: July 10, 2012
Imprint: Lexington Books
Language: English

In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer recounts the political and military changes that have occurred in Russia up to mid-2010. Using hundreds of interviews she conducted with officials, dissidents, and liberal intellectuals, she describes the various groups, forces, and individuals that worked to liberalize the totalitarian Soviet Union and its fellow nations behind the Iron Curtain, and which ultimately brought about the dissolution of those repressive governments. Spencer identifies four political orientations to describe Soviet society: 'Sheep,' ordinary citizens who accepted the undemocratic regime they lived in without challenging it; 'Dinosaurs,' hard-line Communist officials; 'Termites,' including Mikhail Gorbachev and his advisers and government; and 'Barking Dogs,' a few hundred dissidents who made 'a lot of noise' protesting, hoping to awaken a grass-roots demand for democracy. The strange rivalry between the Termites and Barking Dogs would ultimately doom perestroika. Spencer's research dispels the widely-held perception that US President Ronald Reagan 'won' the Cold War by standing firm until the Soviet Union 'blinked first.' There are vitally important lessons to be learned from the Soviet period, about how to assist citizens of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes around the world. The irony is that transnational civil society organizations, major sources of the progress in Soviet Russia, are still needed today in authoritarian Russia, under Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, for totalitarianism remains a potential social trap. In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer suggests new ways of building urgently-needed social capital in today's Russia, where democracy has yet to flourish.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer recounts the political and military changes that have occurred in Russia up to mid-2010. Using hundreds of interviews she conducted with officials, dissidents, and liberal intellectuals, she describes the various groups, forces, and individuals that worked to liberalize the totalitarian Soviet Union and its fellow nations behind the Iron Curtain, and which ultimately brought about the dissolution of those repressive governments. Spencer identifies four political orientations to describe Soviet society: 'Sheep,' ordinary citizens who accepted the undemocratic regime they lived in without challenging it; 'Dinosaurs,' hard-line Communist officials; 'Termites,' including Mikhail Gorbachev and his advisers and government; and 'Barking Dogs,' a few hundred dissidents who made 'a lot of noise' protesting, hoping to awaken a grass-roots demand for democracy. The strange rivalry between the Termites and Barking Dogs would ultimately doom perestroika. Spencer's research dispels the widely-held perception that US President Ronald Reagan 'won' the Cold War by standing firm until the Soviet Union 'blinked first.' There are vitally important lessons to be learned from the Soviet period, about how to assist citizens of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes around the world. The irony is that transnational civil society organizations, major sources of the progress in Soviet Russia, are still needed today in authoritarian Russia, under Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev, for totalitarianism remains a potential social trap. In The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy, Metta Spencer suggests new ways of building urgently-needed social capital in today's Russia, where democracy has yet to flourish.

More books from Lexington Books

Cover of the book Street-Level Sovereignty by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Democratic Anxieties by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Creating a Transformational Community by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Islamicate Societies by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book The Performativity of Value by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book The Preaching of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Transition in Power by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book The Assimilation of Yogic Religions through Pop Culture by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book The Naturalness of Belief by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Mass Mediated Disease by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Black Women and Breast Cancer by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book The Influence of Polls on Television News Coverage of Presidential Campaigns by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Cyberculture and the Subaltern by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Novel Approaches to Anthropology by Metta Spencer
Cover of the book Literature among the Ruins, 1945–1955 by Metta Spencer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy