Russian Studies and Comparative Politics: Views from Metatheory and Middle-Range Theory

by Frederic J. Fleron Jr. University at Buffalo

Overview

This book brings together several of the author’s empirical studies that demonstrate the strength and utility of sociologist Robert Merton’s classic middle-range theory for understanding aspects of both Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Some of those studies demonstrate that testing middle-range social science theory could take place even in the Soviet era when there were significant limitations of access to empirical data, and meaningful field research in the USSR was all but impossible.

In the introductory chapter, the author explains the need for and advantages of studying Russian and Soviet politics from the perspective of middle-range social science theory. Then follow three chapters analyzing methodological issues in Soviet/post-Soviet studies. The author presents his six empirical studies employing middle-range social science theories to explore in Russia/USSR dimensions of organizations, ideology and decisionmaking, technology transfer and cultural diffusion, political culture, public opinion and democratization, and congruence of authority patterns in state-society relations. The book concludes with a chapter arguing the advantages of thinking theoretically about Russian and Soviet politics with the establishment of a new epistemic community organized around studies employing middle-range theory.

This book presents examples of solutions to long-standing debates between area studies and the academic disciplines and between idiographic and nomothetic approaches to knowledge in the social sciences. In contrast to the tradition of Carnivals and Cockfights in Russian/Soviet area studies since the mid-20th Century, the book offers a new way of approaching the study of Russian politics for the 21st Century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739129616
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/27/2016
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Frederic J. Fleron Jr. is university research scholar and professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Table of Contents

Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: The View from Middle-Range
Part II: Metatheory
Chapter 2: The Logic of Inquiry in Sovietology: Soviet Area Studies and the Social Sciences
Chapter 3: Silver Anniversary of the Publication of Communist Studies and the Social Sciences
Chapter 4: The Logic of Inquiry in Post-Sovietology: Russian Studies and the Social Sciences
Part III: Middle-Range Theories
Chapter 5: Co-optation as a Mechanism of Adaptation to Change
Chapter 6: Motivation, Methodology and Communist Ideology
Chapter 7: The Western Connection: Technical Rationality and Soviet Politics
Chapter 8: Political Culture in Post-Soviet Russia: Recent Empirical Investigations
Chapter 9: Does the Public Matter for Democratization in Russia?
Chapter 10: Congruence Theory Applied: Democratization in Russia
Part IV: Conclusion
Chapter 11: Conclusion: Thinking Theoretically about Russian & Soviet Politics: Carnivals, Cockfights, and Epistemic Communities

Editorial Reviews

The book serves as a valuable reminder of how the study of Russian politics can benefit from and contribute to cumulative knowledge, and it should be a worthwhile addition to seminars on the conduct of inquiry and comparative politics.

Slavic Review

Nobody has done more over the years than Frederic J. Fleron Jr. to close the methodological gap between information-rich Soviet/Russian Studies and the theory-driven field of comparative politics, and to facilitate learned communication between the study of the Soviet Union and Russia and the mainstream discipline of political science. Many of his key contributions to the discussion are revisited in this latest volume along with new chapters reframing the issues in terms of progress made and the distance yet to be traveled. In this study, Fleron has successfully provided a well-crafted portal into the possibilities and opportunities for the application of middle-range theory in the field of Russian studies. This fine book closes with a tour-de-force conclusion which is at once sophisticated, insightful, historically grounded, and clearly expressed.

Robert Sharlet

Frederic J. Fleron Jr. has long been at the forefront of efforts to foster methodological rigor in Soviet and post-Soviet studies and to integrate work in this area more fully into the mainstream of the discipline of comparative politics. This book marks a suitable capstone for these missions. It will be of interest to area specialists and comparativists alike.

Munroe Eagles