Parliamentarianism and Sobornost': Two Models of Representative Institutions in Russian Political Culture

Abstract

The paper seeks to inquire into the differences between the pluralist and the populist visions of democracy and the two models of representative assemblies associated with them, namely parliamentarianism and sobornost'. The first section attempts to trace the latter to its historic roots, both traditional and Marxist, while the second section deals with the impact it still bears on present-day political discourse. The argument is supported by the analysis of the proceedings of the First Congress of the People's Deputies of the USSR in 1989. Treated as indicative of this type of political culture are the `anti-procedural' philippics pivoted on insistent contraposition of `real work' to `idle talk' and certain patterns of deputies' social and political identification as expressed in the variety of meanings attached to pronouns we and/or our.