Historiosophical aspects of domestic democracy: early and developed state: article 2

The article presents the second part of the work on the historiosophical vision of Russian democracy. Based on the concept of stages of state genesis by L. Grinin, the authors analyze domestic manifestations of democracy at the stages of an early and developed state. Despite the fact that in the conditions of the early state the highest authority had very superficial control over social processes, already in the Kievan period there was a clear tendency for the leading political subjectivity to transition to princely power. In subjective terms, the popular consciousness preferred the figure of a charismatic and militarily successful prince. Expressions of the people’s will often had an ochlocratic meaning, taking the form of a mass emotional outburst with ambiguous final results. At the stage of a developed state, internal political centralization adjusted the tasks of the highest authorities, giving them a mobilization meaning. At the same time, the general trend is that expanding state structures are conducting a successful attack on the autonomy of stable institutions of democracy, at first widely using tactics of maneuvering and compromise, and then preferring harsh suppression. At the same time, a number of phenomena of democracy turned out to be a reaction either to the complete vacuum of the central government (the Time of Troubles), or, conversely, to the growing pressure of the latter. At the same time, grassroots expression of will could occur spontaneously, acquiring an ochlocratic meaning (urban riots); and acquire more organized forms of socio-political movements.