National integrity, elites and democracy: Russia and China compared

Russia faces problems of democratic consolidation, that is, strengthening the democratic institutions and practices that have already been introduced. China faces the prospect of democratic transition and 'creeping democratization'. Both processes are dependent on the same set of factors and conditions. The prospects of securing democracy in Russia and initiating democratic transition in China depend, first, on the solution of national boundary and identity problems; second, on the control of ethno-national fissions; and third, on elites in both countries achieving a consensus that will facilitate the effective management of conflicts and reforms. While the political developments in Russia illustrate the paradox of democratization', whereby initial democratic reforms encourage ethnic separatism and trigger an anti-democratic backlash, the Chinese developments illustrate the 'paradox of partocracy'. Elite unification in China has paved the way for economic reforms essential to the communist elite's security and credibility. These very reforms, however, undermine the partocratic regimes by speeding up elite differentiation, eroding ideological unity and encouraging consensus seeking, thereby paving the way for 'creeping democratization'.