Honors Theses
Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Undergraduate Thesis
Department
Croft Institute for International Studies
First Advisor
Joshua First
Relational Format
Dissertation/Thesis
Abstract
Building on Lipset's modernization theory, this thesis makes the argument that a robust, independent middle class is vital for the long term sustenance of liberal democracy in Russia. Following a discussion of scholarly literature on what constitutes democracy and the middle class, a historical analysis compares and contrasts the trajectories of the middle class and democracy in Russia from the late-Soviet Era to the present, This thesis draws on public opinion polling, media reports (both Russian and foreign), and scholarly works to perform a mixed qualitative and quantitative analysis to show that middle class Russians provide the most reliable base of support for democracy and that it has been the weakness of the middle class which has left Russia vulnerable to an illiberal relapse. Moving forward, this suggests that promoting economic growth in the middle class is the best method to encourage democracy in Russia and that any brief forays in to democracy are unlikely to prove sustainable unless they are preceded or accompanied by a corresponding growth of the middle class.
Recommended Citation
Lichlyter, Isaac Alan, "Millions of Owners, not Hundreds of Millionaires: An Analysis of the Middle Class as a Requisite Condition for Democracy in Contemporary Russia" (2013). Honors Theses. 2369.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/2369
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