Populism as a Political Force in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine
Populism as a Political Force in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine

Summary/Abstract: The political discourse of the nineteenth century was dominated by the ideas of classical liberalism grounded in English utilitarian philosophy and the Scottish Enlightment and based on the centrality of the individual as an independent agent pursuing his natural rights within a minimalist state. The liberal idea, however, was sustainable only within the context of a strong state that could prevent the human quest for security from turning into political action. While the United States and Britain, with their powerful political institutions and cultural ethos of libertarianism, indeed, managed to sustain basically laissez-faire, liberal, and individualist societies, on the Continent, with its tradition of communitarianism and notions of organic societies, individualist liberalism proved to be a short episode between 1880 and 1914. [...]

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