Recentering putinism

pp. 1-34

in: Käte C. Langdon, Vladimir Tismaneanu, Putin's totalitarian democracy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020

Abstract

The "Putin Phenomenon" is the term coined in reference to the remarkable popularity and political effectiveness of both Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin he controls. But is Putin truly the all-powerful sovereign of Russia, as he is often presumed to be in today's mainstream opinions? Langdon and Tismaneanu highlight the pitfalls of such opinions and instead argue for the need to study the cultural and societal factors that are disastrously absent from popular discourse on Putin's Russia. They emphasize the significance of the population's desire for authoritarianism, nationalist ideology, and historical trends. Understanding Putin's Russia, the epitomizing example of twenty-first-century ideological authoritarianism, and its (re)production by the masses are imperative to comprehending the increasingly global spread of extreme political movements.