Presentations and Remarks

About Us ›› Meet Our President ›› Presentations and Remarks

Toward a Russia of Citizens
Address by Carl Gershman, President
The National Endowment for Democracy

At the Conference of "The Other Russia"
Moscow, July 11, 2006

We have gathered together to support the ideal and the goal of a Russia of citizens, by which is meant a Russia that is truly democratic: Where power flows from an active and engaged citizenry, from the people at the grassroots who are informed by a free media, who are governed by an executive authority that is accountable to a strong parliament and an independent judiciary; where power is decentralized, markets are free, workers are represented by trade unions of their choice, civil society is organized and vigorous, minorities are protected, human rights are secure, political parties are diverse and inclusive, and elections are free and fair.

Russia today is not such a democracy. But let us be clear. Russia is also not what it once was: A totalitarian state where power was concentrated entirely in the hands of the Communist Party.

Russia has moved far from that terrible past, but it is not yet a democracy; and it is not moving toward democracy but in the opposite direction. It is a system that combines elements of both dictatorship and democracy, a hybrid system that has been called semi-authoritarian. This is an inherently unstable system because the people who have power want to hold onto it in any way they can, while the people who have gained some freedom want to expand that freedom until it cannot be taken away.

Abraham Lincoln once said about an America where slavery still existed that "a house divided against itself cannot stand," and that "a government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half freeIt will become all one thing or all the other."

And so there is a struggle in Russia today. The government is moving to expand its power because it fears to lose it and thinks that increasing its control is the only way to retain it. As a result, the parliament has been brought under state control, as have the judicial system, the regional governments, the electronic and most of the print media, and the business community. Opposition political parties have been neutralized, and now an effort is under way, accelerated by the new NGO law, to rein in civil society which is last remaining outpost of independent political life.

In my view this effort to consolidate and maintain state control will fail, as it earlier failed in Slovakia in 1998 and subsequently in Croatia, Yugoslavia, Georgia, and Ukraine. It will fail not only because people who have tasted freedom will not relinquish it, no matter what the price, but also because in the modern world, with its globalized economy, a country cannot be governed effectively over time without democracy.

For one thing, the government leaders cannot hope to control corruption, however much they might decry it, if there is not a free media to expose corruption, an independent judiciary that can hold the corrupt accountable, and a system of free elections where the corrupt can be voted out of power. But in larger sense, a government cannot meaningfully address the problems of the people and implement needed reforms if it has no way to know what people really think, since it has neutralized all the channels and instruments for getting feedback from the society. Under such conditions, it will either try to make changes in a clumsy way, as happened at the beginning of last year with the unrest over the benefits reform, or it will be afraid to move at all. High oil prices might conceal the underlying paralysis for a time, but they cannot do so permanently, and oil prices won't be forever high. Sooner or later the crisis will come, and it can only be resolved or prevented in the first place through establishing a real democracy where the government is made accountable to the people and responsive to their needs.

The "sovereign democracy" of which some officials here speak is a far cry from such a real democracy. Sovereignty resides only in the people. Such so-called sovereign democracy is, in fact, a hollow democracy, a faade or Potemkin democracy. Democracy does not need to be defined by an adjective. It is either a system of authentic participation and representation, or it is not a democracy at all.

Throughout the world people are fighting for democracy. Each struggle has its own unique national characteristics and circumstances, but they all share a common purpose and philosophy, and they are united by a shared spirit. Russian democracy will be built by Russians, but you are not alone in your quest. You're part of an international movement for freedom whose heroes are Vaclav Havel of The Czech Republic and Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and the Dalai Lama of Tibet, Ayman Nour and Saad Eddin Ibrahim of Egypt, Akbar Ganji of Iran, Alexander Milinkevich of Belarus, and millions upon millions of others.

And let it be said, regretfully, that the Russian government today is a leader of a new international movement a backlash against democracy. As one example, laws modeled on the Russian NGO law have recently been introduced in Zimbabwe and Venezuela.

The struggle for democracy needs to be guided by two operational principles. The first is international solidarity which is rooted in the universality of the democratic idea and the recognition that all people have dignity and are entitled to be treated with respect, even as they have the obligation to treat others with respect and to show concern for people in need. It is on the basis of this principle of solidarity that you have every right to expect support in your struggle, most immediately from those of us who have come from abroad to attend this meeting of "The Other Russia," and from the world leaders who will assemble four days hence in St. Petersburg at the G8 Summit.

The second principle is unity, which is your responsibility. It doesn't mean you must agree on everything. There will be differences among you, of course. But all successful democratic movements have found a way to bring people together around a common vision. Yours is a vision of a democratic Russia, a proud and successful Russia that is fully integrated into the international system and at peace with its neighbors and itself. It is a Russia of citizens, where the people take responsibility for their own destiny and work together toward a better future. I have no doubt that if you can achieve unity in your struggle, you will deserve and receive solidarity from your many friends in the international community.