Abstract:

With regard to the choice of Russia's institutional transitive paths, there are two opposite views prevailing in international academic circles. According to the first view, after independence of Russian society its choice of institutional transitive paths was authoritarian. And the other argues that Russia selected a Western democratic representative system shortly after its independence. In fact, the path choice of Russia's system transition is neither authoritarianism nor representative democracy, but commissioned democracy, a unique political system intermediating between the both. It carries on a non-democratic mode of strenthening power from the former, and inherits free competitive election from the latter. Such a distinct system is our ground to judge a future tendency of Russia's domestic and foreign policies, and also the starting point of the new path dependence for Russia's social transition.

Key words: Russia, society in transition, authoritarianism, representative democracy, commissioned democracy