Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T21:56:57.254Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Rethinking Civilizational Identity from the Bottom Up: A Case Study of Russia and a Research Agenda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2020

Henry E. Hale*
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
Marlene Laruelle
Affiliation:
George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

“Civilization” is surely among those concepts that are the most widely used in world political discourse but taken least seriously by contemporary social science. We argue for jettisoning this concept’s Huntingtonian baggage, which has led scholarship into a dead end, and developing a new body of theory on a different foundation, one grounded strongly in recent nonprimordial theories of identity and micro-level research into how ordinary people actually understand the civilizational appeals made by their elites. In what we believe to be the first systematic survey-based study of individual-level civilizational identification, we establish proof-of-concept by asking a question: What influences individuals’ primary identification of their own country with particular civilizational alternatives offered up by their elites? Pooling survey data gathered in Russia from 2013–2014, we confirm that civilizational identity reflects the influence of situational considerations and social construction processes. Whether individuals see Russia as part of purported “European,” “Eurasian,” or “Asian” civilizations depends heavily on gendered and nongendered socialization during the USSR period and factors as contingent as perceived economic performance. Results also confirm our expectation that Huntingtonian concepts fit poorly with real-world patterns of civilizational identification.

Type
Article
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdelal, Rawi, Herrera, Yoshiko M., Johnston, Alastair Iain, and McDermott, Rose, eds. 2009. Measuring Identity: A Guide for Social Scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrahamian, Ervand. 2003. “The US Media, Huntington and September 11.” Third World Quarterly 24 (3): 529544.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al Jazeera World. 2011. “The 9/11 Decade.” Al Jazeera World. https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeraworld/2011/10/2011102075124103401.html. (Accessed January 17, 2020.)Google Scholar
Alexseev, Mikhail A. 2016. “Backing the USSR 2.0: Russia’s Ethnic Minorities and Expansionist Ethnic Russian Nationalism.” In The New Russian Nationalism, 2000–2015: Imperialism, Ethnicity, Authoritarianism, edited by Kolstø, Pål and Blakkisrud, Helge, 160191. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgartner, Jody C., Francia, Peter L., and Morris, Jonathan S.. 2008. “A Clash of Civilizations? The Influence of Religion on Public Opinion of U.S Foreign Policy in the Middle East.” Political Research Quarterly 61 (2): 171179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breznau, Nate, Kelley, Jonathan, Lykes, Valerie A., and Evans, M. D. R.. 2011. “A Clash of Civilizations? Preferences for Religious Political Leaders in 86 Nations.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 50 (4): 671691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 1996. Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the National Question in the New Europe. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Ethnicity Without Groups. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2017a. “Between Nationalism and Civilizationism: The European Populist Moment in Comparative Perspective.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 40 (8): 11911226.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2017b. “The New Language of European Populism.” Foreign Affairs, December 6. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2017-12-06/new-language-european-populism. (Accessed July 2, 2018.)Google Scholar
Carnaghan, Ellen. 1996. “Alienation, Apathy, or Ambivalence? ‘Don’t Knows’ and Democracy in Russia.” Slavic Review 55 (2): 325363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandra, Kanchan. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cottiero, Christina, Kucharski, Katherine, Olimpieva, Evgenia, and Orttung, Robert W.. 2015. “War of Words: The Impact of Russian State Television on the Russian Internet.” Nationalities Papers 43 (4): 533555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Keith, and Grzymala-Busse, Anna. 2006. “The Great Divide: Literacy, Nationalism, and the Communist Collapse.” World Politics 59 (1): 83115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Darden, Keith, and Mylonas, Harris. 2016. “Threats to Territorial Integrity, National Mass Schooling, and Linguistic Commonality.” Comparative Political Studies 49 (11): 14461479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksson, Johan, and Norman, Ludvig. 2011. “Political Utilisation of Scholarly Ideas: The ‘clash of Civilisations’ vs. ‘Soft Power’ in US Foreign Policy.” Review of International Studies 37 (1): 417436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2001. “Two Civilizations and Ethnic Conflict: Islam and the West.” Journal of Peace Research 38 (4): 459472.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2002. “Ethnic Minorities and the Clash of Civilizations: A Quantitative Analysis of Huntington’s Thesis.” British Journal of Political Science 32: 415434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, Jonathan. 2007. “The Rise of Religion and the Fall of the Civilization Paradigm as Explanations for Intra-State Conflict.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 20 (3): 361382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gerber, Theodore P., and Zavisca, Jane. 2017. Political and Social Attitudes of Russia’s Muslims: Caliphate, Kadyrovism, or Kasha? Policy Memo 468. PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo. Washington, DC: George Washington University. http://www.ponarseurasia.org/memo/political-and-social-attitudes-russias-muslims-caliphate-kadyrovism-or-kasha. (Accessed July 2, 2018.)Google Scholar
Grim, Brian J., and Finke, Roger. 2007. “Religious Persecution in Cross-National Context: Clashing Civilizations or Regulated Religious Economies?American Sociological Review 72 (4): 633658.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, Henry E. 2004. “Explaining Ethnicity.” Comparative Political Studies 37 (4): 458485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hale, Henry E. 2014. “Civilizations Reframed: Towards a Theoretical Upgrade for a Stalled Paradigm.” Journal of Civilization Studies 1 (1): 523.Google Scholar
Hanmer, Michael J., and Kalkan, Kerem Ozan. 2013. “Behind the Curve: Clarifying the Best Approach to Calculating Predicted Probabilities and Marginal Effects from Limited Dependent Variable Models.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (1): 263277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, Errol A., and Tucker, Richard. 2001. “Clear and Present Strangers: The Clash of Civilizations and International Conflict.” International Studies Quarterly 45 (2): 317338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hopf, Ted. 2002. Social Construction of Foreign Policy: Identities and Foreign Policies, Moscow, 1955 and 1999. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?Foreign Affairs 72 (3): 2249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel P. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Johns, Robert, and Davies, Graeme A. M.. 2012. “Democratic Peace or Clash of Civilizations? Target States and Support for War in Britain and the United States.” The Journal of Politics 74 (4): 10381052.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J. 2010. Civilizations in World Politics: Plural and Pluralist Perspectives. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Katzenstein, Peter J., and Weygandt, Nicole. 2017. “Mapping Eurasia in an Open World: How the Insularity of Russia’s Geopolitical and Civilizational Approaches Limits Its Foreign Policies.” Perspectives on Politics 15 (2): 428442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolstø, Pål, and Blakkisrud, Helge. 2014. “Nation-Building and Nationalism in Today’s Russia (NEORUSS).” http://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/research/projects/neoruss/. (Accessed July 5, 2018.)Google Scholar
Laruelle, Marlene. 2016. “Russia as an Anti-Liberal European Civilisation.” In The New Russian Nationalism, 2000–2015: Imperialism, Ethnicity, Authoritarianism, edited by Kolstø, Pål and Blakkisrud, Helge, 275297. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linde, Fabian. 2016. “The Civilizational Turn in Russian Political Discourse: From Pan-Europeanism to Civilizational Distinctiveness.” The Russian Review 75 (4): 604625.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahbubani, Kishore. 1993. “The Dangers of Decadence: What the Rest Can Teach the West.” Foreign Affairs, September 1. https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/asia/1993-09-01/dangers-decadence-what-rest-can-teach-west. (Accessed July 2, 2018.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Medvedev, Dmitry. 2010. “Vstrecha s vedushchimi rossiiskimi i zarubezhnymi politologami.” Official Website of the President of Russia. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/8882. (Accessed July 14, 2018.)Google Scholar
Morozov, Viatcheslav. 2015. Russia’s Postcolonial Identity: A Subaltern Empire in a Eurocentric World. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neumayer, Eric, and Plümper, Thomas. 2009. “International Terrorism and the Clash of Civilizations.” British Journal of Political Science 39 (4): 711734.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oates, Sarah. 2013. Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
O’Loughlin, John, and Talbot, Paul. 2005. “Where in the World Is Russia? Geopolitical Perceptions and Preferences of Ordinary Russians.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 46 (1): 2350.Google Scholar
O’Loughlin, John, Toal, Gerard, and Kolosov, Vladimir. 2005. “Russian Geopolitical Culture in the Post-9/11 Era: The Masks of Proteus Revisited.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30 (3): 322335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orsi, Davide, ed. 2018. The “Clash of Civilizations” 25 Years On: A Multidisciplinary Appraisal. Bristol: E-International Relations Publishing.Google Scholar
O’Tuathail, Gearoid. 1996. Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Pop-Eleches, Grigore, and Tucker, Joshua A.. 2017. Communism’s Shadow: Historical Legacies and Contemporary Political Attitudes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, Daniel N. 2005. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Putin, Vladimir V. 2000. “Interv’iu gazete ‘Vel’t am Zonntag’ (FRG).” Official Website of the President of Russia. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24202. (Accessed July 14, 2018.)Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir V. 2007. “Zaiavlenie dlia pressy i otvety na voprosy po itogam XX sammita Rossiia-Evrosoiuz.” Official Website of the President of Russia. http://kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/24624. (Accessed July 14, 2018.)Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir V. 2014. “Poslanie Prezidenta Rossiiskoi Federatsii ot 18.03.2014 g.” Official Website of the President of Russia. http://kremlin.ru/acts/bank/39444. (Accessed July 3, 2018.)Google Scholar
Rivera, Sharon Werning. 2016. “Is Russia Too Unique to Learn from Abroad? Elite Views on Foreign Borrowing and the West, 1993–2012.” Sravnitel’naia Politika i Geopolitika [Comparative Politics and Geopolitics] 1 (22): 3140.Google Scholar
Russett, Bruce M., Oneal, John R., and Cox, Michaelene. 2000. “Clash of Civilizations, or Realism and Liberalism Déjà Vu? Some Evidence.” Journal of Peace Research 37 (5): 583608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sokolov, Boris, Inglehart, Ronald F., Ponarin, Eduard, Vartanova, Irina, and Zimmerman, William. 2018. “Disillusionment and Anti-Americanism in Russia: From Pro-American to Anti-American Attitudes, 1993–2009.” International Studies Quarterly 62 (3): 534547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sperling, Valerie. 2014. Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Charles. 2013. Missing the Soviet Motherland: Nostalgia for the USSR in Russia Today. Rising Experts Task Force Working Paper. Washington, DC: Center on Global Interests. http://globalinterests.org/2013/03/21/missing-the-soviet-motherland-nostalgia-for-the-ussr-in-russia-today-2/.Google Scholar
“The Foreign Policy Concept of the Russian Federation.” 2008. President of Russia. http://en.kremlin.ru/supplement/4116. (Accessed July 14, 2018.)Google Scholar
Tsygankov, Andrei P. 2003. “The Irony of Western Ideas in a Multicultural World: Russians’ Intellectual Engagement with the ‘End of History’ and ‘Clash of Civilizations.’” International Studies Review 5 (1): 5376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsygankov, Andrei P. 2014. The Strong State in Russia: Development and Crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsygankov, Andrei P. 2016. “Crafting the State-Civilization Vladimir Putin’s Turn to Distinct Values.” Problems of Post-Communism 63 (3): 146158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yashar, Deborah J. 2007. “Resistance and Identity Politics in an Age of Globalization.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 610: 160181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zaller, John, and Feldman, Stanley. 1992. “A Simple Theory of the Survey Response: Answering Questions versus Revealing Preferences.” American Journal of Political Science 36 (3): 579616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, William. 2002. The Russian People and Foreign Policy: Russian Elite and Mass Perspectives, 1993–2000. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Hale and Laruelle supplementary material

Hale and Laruelle supplementary material

Download Hale and Laruelle supplementary material(File)
File 34.3 KB