Sovereignty and Democracy: Constructions and Contradictions in Russia and Beyond

Despite arguments about the erosion of sovereignty through globalization and other universalistic processes, the assertion of state sovereignty remains one of the main driving forces of international politics to this day. State sovereignty has limits, but the boundaries of this in the contemporary world remain shifting and negotiable. Even in regions of advanced international integration the problem of state autonomy over what are considered areas of vital national concerns remains at the center of national political discourse. In newly independent states the issue takes particularly acute forms. In Russia the assertion of state sovereignty represented the founding act of the new state. In the last decade the many facets of sovereignty became constitutive of a particular type of regime consolidation. The autonomy of the state internally and the assertion of sovereign subjectivity in international affairs became mutually reinforcing. While the term "sovereign democracy" was always contested and has now become anachronistic, it reflected the deeper concerns of the regime and society. The debate also revealed the weakening of the civic republican current in Russian politics, which had been so strong at the time of the Soviet collapse, and thus reflects the erosion of effective democratic participation as a whole. Once again, popular sovereignty has been displaced by a sovereign regime.