How Russians Understand the New Russia: Consolidation and Contestation by Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitefield

With this book, two leading scholars of public opinion pull together nearly three decades of original survey research to argue that Vladimir Putin's aggressive expansionism since 2014 has undermined a process of authoritarian consolidation that had been developing under his rule. While pitched primarily to Russia-watchers, it will be of interest to students of authoritarianism, nationalism, and political behavior more generally. At the core of the book is the idea that regime consolidation means not that there is no political competition but instead that competition is “normal” and does not center around the nature of the political system itself. The authors argue that Russia's political system is fundamentally a hybrid one that combines ideological support for democracy and the market with a reality involving “electoral authoritarianism and patrimonial capitalism” (2–3). Regime-consolidating public opinion, therefore, reflects support for these ideals combined with acceptance of the hybrid reality. Drawing on survey data that stretch back to 1993, the book shows that political contestation in Russia after the demise of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics initially centered around the nature of the system itself, with three strains gradually crystalizing: system consolidators who support markets and democracy but accept hybridity in practice; antisystem market democrats who support markets and democracy but reject Russia's hybrid reality; and antisystem statist authoritarians who reject not only the hybrid system but markets and democracy on an ideological level.