國立臺灣大學政治科學論叢

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Many who study Russian politics worry that President Putin’s rule has caused the democratization among the country’s youth to ‘derail’,, while the regime has now come to prefer a model of managed democracy. As Putin is at the very core of centralised state power, the regime has employed patron-client relations to mobilise and control the current Russian political system. Accordingly, many parts of Russia’s civil society have also encountered struggles within a narrowing space and have become vulnerable to resource distribution. With their brutal control of administrative resources and legal means, Russian political elites have successfully made social organisations become associated with the government, in order for the latter to survive under the authoritarian climate. This paper refers to studies on the relationship between the Russian state, trade unions and youth organisations. In particular, although the leadership of both FNPR (the state trade union) and NASHI (the pro-Putin youth organisation) certainly had great ambitions for leading their organisations towards an active influence on Russia’s political stage, they essentially became affiliated with the party of power and Putin’s state. What is also noteworthily is that the characteristics of Putin’s political practices share a similar tendency towards an authoritarian model as Russia’s social corporatism under Yeltsin. Putinism has demonstrated an effective approach to a workable authoritarian regime. Perhaps the lessons have provided Putin’s successors with a grand vision to follow.