9 - Legal reform and the transition to democracy in Russia

Summary

What matters above all is not whether a law is bad or good. What matters is whether or not the law exists. A bad law is nevertheless a law. Good illegality is nevertheless illegal.

Aleksandr Zinoviev, The Yawning Heights

The transition from a communist society to a democratic state has proven to be a tortuous process throughout Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Fledgling democratic institutions struggle to establish legitimacy and authority among a citizenry and officials long accustomed to working outside the system. Multiple, fragmented political parties divide the political spectrum into tiny cells that are forced to form coalitions in order to obtain parliamentary majorities. More often than not, these coalitions prove fragile and result in parliamentary instability and immobilism. Meanwhile, badly needed legislation languishes. The parliament, when unable to function as a normal democratic legislative body, becomes a forum for the fragmented party interests to proclaim their positions and play to public opinion by raising divisive, controversial issues, rather than building coalitions across party, ethnic, and ideological lines.

Faced with parliamentary immobilism, the president and other executive authorities are forced to rule by decree, which inevitably results in a cascade of accusations of a return to authoritarian rule.

The problems of creating stable democratic political institutions in Russia have been exacerbated by the precipitous decline of the Russian economy in recent years and the consequent collapse of the social infrastructure.