not even Russia knows what the fuck it is, there’s no point trying to characterize it from the outside with broad textbook political definitions like that… it’s a criminal enterprise first and foremost… any ideological considerations are lipstick on that pig…
are Russians fascist? you betcha they are… is it a dictatorship? it’s more of an official government mafia…
I feel like ‘fascist dictatorship’ is used in common parlance to just mean a political system without effective representative mechanisms, even though political scientists or historians would use more specific definitions.
I’ve heard terms like managed pseudo republic - there’s a lot tightly controlled theatre of representation that you wouldn’t need in a textbook dictatorship, even if the effect is the same.
There are obvious and strong autocratic elements in putin’s personal power, but the need to keep key elites on side - and everyone (including actual generals!) building PMCs - highlights oligarchic elements.
There’s also the resource-curse so there’s petro-state elements.
The state ideology is a little loose to fit neatly into fascism, but is certainly heading more in that direction.
A hybrid mafia state seems to describe it fairly well from what I know, but I definitely think it’s too unique to fit into any one textbook definition.
not even Russia knows what the fuck it is, there’s no point trying to characterize it from the outside with broad textbook political definitions like that… it’s a criminal enterprise first and foremost… any ideological considerations are lipstick on that pig…
are Russians fascist? you betcha they are… is it a dictatorship? it’s more of an official government mafia…
I feel like ‘fascist dictatorship’ is used in common parlance to just mean a political system without effective representative mechanisms, even though political scientists or historians would use more specific definitions.
I’ve heard terms like managed pseudo republic - there’s a lot tightly controlled theatre of representation that you wouldn’t need in a textbook dictatorship, even if the effect is the same.
There are obvious and strong autocratic elements in putin’s personal power, but the need to keep key elites on side - and everyone (including actual generals!) building PMCs - highlights oligarchic elements.
There’s also the resource-curse so there’s petro-state elements.
The state ideology is a little loose to fit neatly into fascism, but is certainly heading more in that direction.
A hybrid mafia state seems to describe it fairly well from what I know, but I definitely think it’s too unique to fit into any one textbook definition.