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Putin and the Russian Mythscape: Dilemmas of Charismatic Legitimacy
- Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization
- Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, The George Washington University
- Volume 25, Number 3, Summer 2017
- pp. 235-254
- Article
- Additional Information
For decades now, President Vladimir Putin has consistently enjoyed markedly high approval rates and seemingly benefited from charismatic legitimacy, whereas systemic legal-rational legitimacy has remained low. This article discusses how, through the successful communication of political myth, legitimacy has become ever more personalized in Putin’s Russia, and considers some of the dilemmas inherent in non-democratic settings where legitimacy builds on grounds that are not legal-rational in the Weberian sense.