Regimes of the Modern World (110

11

Give examples from history or current affairs of (some of) these types of government. 2. Decide where these words should go in the diagram. The first one has been done for you.

anarchist / capitalist / communist / conservative / fascist / liberal / nationalist / socialist / social democrat

state control

anarchist

individual responsibility

Where would you put yourself?

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UNIT 3

Lead-in

Comment on the quotations:

1.“Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma” (Sir Winston Churchill).

2.“Capitalism in Russia has spawned far more Al Capones than Henry Fords” (David Remnick).

3.“The real political life in Russia unfortunately is not in the parliament but on the streets and in the media” (Garry Kasparov).

4.“Russia needs a strong state power and must have it. But I am not calling for totalitarianism” (Vladimir Putin).

Pre-reading

What are the most serious problems Russia has faced recently?

Assessing Russia's Future by Jean-Pierre and Fabrice Lehmann

In the winter of 2003 — five years of fairly strong economic growth notwithstanding

— it is difficult to feel optimistic about Russia. There are six quite daunting major weaknesses and threats:

1. Who is in charge?

It is not at all clear where the country’s real power base lies. The Kremlin under President Putin — indeed Putin himself — fit perfectly into Churchill’s famous description of Russian policy under Stalin as a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”

The relationship and balance of power between the presidency, the army and the oligarchy are opaque. The showdown with Khodorkovsky is clearly a power-play, but what will be the final act?

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A dozen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the question “What kind of state is Russia anyway?” is impossible to answer.

2. How to enforce the law?

There is widespread corruption, bureaucratic inefficiency, a completely inadequate legal system and a gaping democracy deficit, notably in respect of the media.

And there is the omnipresent mafia, with several thousand gangs controlling tens of thousands of businesses and banks. Even small retailers are subjected to protection racketeering.

3. Can the demographic rot be stopped?

Russia’s demographics are catastrophic. It is one of the few countries in Europe where life expectancy is quite dramatically declining, alcoholism is rife, as are many other diseases (including HIV/AIDS).

According to estimates, there are 17 billionaires in Russia — while about 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.

4. How to fix the economy?

The country’s economic structure and income distribution are in a worrisome state. The infrastructure is collapsing and in many places it simply has collapsed. There is far too much dependence on oil and gas.

The concentration of wealth is skewed in several respects: 85% of Russia’s financial assets are concentrated in the capital city of Moscow, where less than 10% of the country’s population lives.

Russia’s small-and-medium sized sector (SMEs) contributes only around 10% of GDP, in contrast to 50% in most Western countries. It is also far lower than in many developing economies, where the SMEs are the most dynamic part of the economy.

Domestic investment is very low. Thus, Russia’s huge landmass notwithstanding, it accounts for only about 1% of world GDP.

5. Integration in the world economy

A major weakness is that the Russian economy is markedly “unglobalized.”

Russia, with a population of 145 million, accounts for less than 2% of world exports, including oil and gas. That is less than Spain’s share with its 40 million people.

In 1913, Russia accounted for 3.8% of the world’s grain exports. Ninety years later, its share has fallen to 1%. Russia’s share of foreign direct investment (FDI) flows hovers at about 0.25% of total FDI. Russia is a minor and peripheral player in the globalized economy.

6. Ethnic tensions

Ethnic relations, both inside Russia and with its close-by neighbors, are a mess. The war in Chechnya has strained relations with some of its neighbours, such as Georgia. Tensions between Russian minorities — which make up more than 30% of the population in Latvia and Estonia, 38% in Kazakhstan, 22% in Ukraine and 13% in both Moldova and Belarus — are problematic as well. Taken altogether, these ethnic compositions represent an explosive mixture.

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Vocabulary Practice

1.Give your understanding of the underlined words and phrases.

2.Fill in the gaps with the appropriate words and expressions from the text “Traditional Systems of Classification” and the article “Assessing Russia’s Future”. First letters of the words are given.

1.It is an attitude which seems to be c______ to the upper classes. It cannot be found anywhere else.

2.Western values were believed to be universally a______.

3.The treaty is b______ on all the parties which have signed it. None of them can avoid complying with it.

4.Serbia requested that the UN SC declare Kosovo independence legally i______.

5.Gorbachev survived a c______ attempt only to be dethroned a few months later by the breakup of the USSR.

6.Lyndon Johnson s______ Kennedy as President.

7.Many academics assert that the political system established in 1648 has e______ until now.

8.Most German aid to the 3rd World is claimed to be a thinly d______ attempt at colonialism.

9.Germany developed in the 1920s the idea of an economy g______ to defence requirements.

10.He’s been o______ in the country’s media since he was elected President. All the newspapers were full of articles devoted to him.

11.Fossil fuels a______ for a large proportion of the nation’s export earnings.

12.If a person’s income is less than is needed to buy food, pay for proper place to live etc, they are said to live b______the p______ l______.

13.Russia is believed to be a country where corruption is r______. The Government claims to be doing all it can to eradicate it.

14.Relations between Russia and Georgia have become quite s______.

15.They urged the PM to crack down on terrorists and deal with the most d______

economic problems.

16.The audience was confused. The jargon in the lecturer’s talk was o______ to

them.

17.It is true that the actual distribution of property in society is far from equal; but it is not so s______ as to give any individual a monopoly of economic power.

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Writing

Analyze the plan of the article “Assessing Russia’s Future” and fill in the gaps with the appropriate words / word combinations to make the plan of the article complete.

I. Russia’s future II. …:

1. …:

a)… ;

b)lawlessness;

c)lack of democracy; d)… .

2. Economy:

a)infrastructural collapse;

b)…;

c)underdeveloped small-and-medium business;

d)small GDP;

e)….

3. …:

a)demographic collapse;

b)….

4. … III. …

Discussion

1.Do you mostly agree or disagree with the authors of the article? Which points do you share and which ones do you disagree with?

2.Has the situation in the country changed dramatically since the article was written? Which of the daunting problems, if any, have been overcome? Have any new problems arisen? How relevant is the article to the current state of affairs in Russia?

While comparing the situation in the past with the current one, make use of the words and phrases below.

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UNIT 4

Lead-in

Comment on the quotations:

1.“It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried” (Sir Winston Churchill).

2.“Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man” (Ronald Reagan).

3.“Democracy is a device that insures we shall be governed no better than we deserve” (George Bernard Shaw).

4.“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country” (Franklin D. Roosevelt).

5.“The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter” (Sir Winston Churchill).

Liberal Democracy

Fill in the blanks using English equivalents.

Liberal democracy is a form of (демократического правления) that balances the principle of (ограниченного правления) against the ideal of

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UNIT 5

representative democracy

Lead-in

Comment on the quotations:

1.“Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential” (Thomas Jefferson).

2.“Someone once said that every form of government has one characteristic peculiar to it and if that characteristic is lost, the government will fall. In a monarchy, it is affection and respect for the royal family. If that is lost the monarch is lost. In a dictatorship, it is fear. If the people stop fearing the dictator he'll lose power. In a representative government such as ours, it is virtue. If virtue goes, the government fails…” (Ronald Reagan).

3.“People who live in the post-totalitarian system know only too well that the question of whether one or several political parties are in power, and how these parties define and label themselves, is of far less importance than the question of whether or not it is possible to live like a human being” (Vaclav Havel).