Published: 15 September 2017
The author's concept of governing through cooperation of the Russian state and society is given in the article on the basis of the analysis of sociological studies related to the development of their mutual relations in the post-Soviet period. The theory of modernization of R. Inglhart and K. Veltsel is based on the main conclusions of the classical concepts of modernization by Karl Marx and M. Weber. True democracy depends on the degree of people's participation in governance. The emancipation of a society that is able to manage through cooperation with the state passes through certain stages of its modernization: socio-economic development leads to a systematic shift from traditional values to values of self-expression and creates conditions to form democratic institutions. Effective democracy is more likely to emerge in a society where more than 45% of population bears the values of self-expression. Naturally, when there is a physical threat to survival of people, the values of survival are of paramount importance, which leads to strengthening of the authoritarianism institution and then the issue of governance through cooperation between the state and society is not relevant, or this cooperation turns into a formal democracy, when there are “sham institutions”, civil and political rights, but the ruling elite ignores them and acts at its own discretion. Such a situation can provoke nonconventional forms of behavior for citizens. Both parties share the responsibility for the result of governing through cooperation equally.
