Open AccessState and Nation Building Policies and the New Trends in Migration in the Former Soviet Union
Author(s) -
Andrei Korobkov
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the carl beck papers in russian and east european studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2163-839X
pISSN - 0889-275X
DOI - 10.5195/cbp.2003.123
Subject(s) - politics , democracy , authoritarianism , political economy , ethnic group , ideology , political science , economic system , state (computer science) , multinational corporation , human settlement , transition (genetics) , development economics , sociology , economics , geography , law , algorithm , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , archaeology , gene
Democratic transitions are especially complex in federal states and countries with multinational populations and compact, ethnic minority settlements; the increasing ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural heterogeneity of a society complicates the achievement of political compromises. In this sense, the post-Soviet newly independent states (NIS) face an especially complex transition pattern. Roman Szporluk, for example, enumerates three different transformations: the dissolution of the imperial structure and the resulting formation of independent states, the transition from a centralized to a market economic system, and the transition from authoritarianism to (at least ideally) a political democracy, with all three "combined or fused in the chaotic and extremely difficult process of formation and transformation of states and nations. " Thus the transition in the NIS is marked by simultaneous developments in the political, economic, social, religious, ideological, and cultural spheres, including the creation or re-creation of ethnic and other identities.