Nationalism and social welfare in the post-Soviet context

Abstract

This paper offers hypotheses on the role that state social welfare measures can play in reflecting nationalism and in aggravating interethnic tensions. Social welfare is often overlooked in theoretical literature on nationalism, because of the widespread assumption that the welfare state promotes social cohesion. However, social welfare systems may face contradictions between the goal of promoting universal access to all citizens on the one hand, and social pressures to recognize particular groups in distinct ways on the other. Examples from the post-Soviet context (particularly Russia) are offered to illustrate the ways in which social welfare issues may be perceived as having ethnic connotations.

Keywords:

• Russia
• Soviet Union
• nationalism
• ethnicity
• social welfare

Acknowledgements

The original version of this paper was presented to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists, York University, Toronto, 29 May 2006. The author would like to acknowledge the support of a Standard Research Grant (no. 410-2006-0903) from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for funding this research in this paper. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments.

Notes

Universal education is also widely considered to be a social welfare program, but I will consider it here only with some caution. As Bendix notes, education is different from other kinds of social welfare because once states introduce education programs, they are usually compulsory (87). Although it is probably the most obvious kind of program to consider when talking about nationalism, education could raise so many issues that it could cloud my focus: as Ernest Gellner argues, mass education is a necessary condition for enabling modern nationalism to flourish (Gellner). Education serves other purposes as well as social welfare. For example, education can promote language assimilation, inculcation of values, the provision of a skilled labour force, and can provide a minimum level of preparedness for conscripts, all of which may serve the goals of the state and business elites more than the interests of society as a whole.

“Proposal for the Creation of the Estonian National Independence Party” (Jan 1988). Furtado and Chandler, eds. 67.

“Election Platform of the Popular Front of Estonia” (20 October 1989). Furtado and Chandler, eds. 97.

“Charter of the Birlik People's Movement to Protect the Natural, Spiritual and Material Wealth of Uzbekistan” (September 1989) Furtado and Chandler, eds. 518.

For example, Estonian language law and Kazakh language law in Furtado and Chandler, eds. 76 and 480, respectively.

“Resolution of the Board of the Latvian SSR Writers' Association” (2 June 1988). Furtado and Chandler 111.

“Program of Demands of the Lithuanian Restructuring Movement, Sajudis” (12 October 1988) Furtado and Chandler, eds. 153.

“Draft Program of the Ukraine People's Movement,” Literaturna Ukraina (16 February 1989): 3, translated in United States, Foreign Broadcast Information Service. Daily Report FBIS-SOV-89-046 (10 March 1989): 40.

“Ob utverzhdenii Polozheniia o personal'nykh pensii.” Sobranie postanovlenii pravitel'stva SSSR,. 2 (1957): 72–80.

“Charter of the Birlik People's Movement to Protect the Natural, Spiritual and Material Wealth of Uzbekistan” (September 1989) Furtado and Chandler, 518.

“Draft Program of the Ukraine People's Movement,” Literaturnaia Ukraina (16 February 1989): 3 translated in United States, FBIS-SOV-89-046 (10 March 1989): 40.

For example, supplementary medical insurance was legalized as early as 1991 (Zakon, “O meditsinskom strakhovanii grazhdan v RSFSR,” Vedomosti S'ezda Narodnykh Deputatov RSFSR i Verkhovnogo Soveta RSFSR, 27 (4 July 1991), 1020–31) and was was further developed in 1993 (“Zakon ob okhrane zdoroviia grazhdan” Vedomosti S'ezda Narodnykh Deputatov Rossiiskoi Federatsii i Verkhovnogo Soveta Rossiiskoi Federatsii, 33 (19 August 1993): 2289–324). Legislation to regulate charities was passed in 1995. Federal'nyi zakon “O blagotvoritel'noi deiatel'nosti i blagotovitel'nykh organizatsii.” Rossiiskaia gazeta 17 August 1995: 4. A law on supplementary private pension insurance was passed in 1998. “O negosudarstvennogo pensionnogo strakhovaniia.” Sobranie zakonodatel'stva Rossiiskoi Federatsii, 19 (1998): 2071.

Ukaz “O povyshenii razmerov sotsial'nykh posobii I kompensatsionnykh vyplat v 1992 godu,” 21 May 1992. Vedomosti S'ezda Narodnykh Deputatov Rossiiskoi Federatsii i Verkhovnogo Soveta Rossiiskoi Federatsii 22 (4 June 1992): 1541–3; “Prezidentskaia programma “Deti Rossii” na 1996–1997.” Rossiiskaia gazeta 29 February 1996: 4.

As Eberstadt (2004) observed, these decreases are unusually large considering that Russia at the time was a country mostly at peace, with a considerable legal immigration.

M.Iu. Zurabov, speech to State Duma, 22 February 2006. Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, State Duma (Gosudarstvennaia Duma), Stenogramma zasedanii, 148 (22 Feb 2006).

Ibid.

All of these phrases were invoked by Duma deputies in the 22 February 2006 discussion on approaches to the demographic problem. See note 15.

Russia's law on religions, passed in 1997, mentions four particular religions by name (Orthodoxy, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism) as being part of the “historic legacy of the peoples of Russia.” It is noteworthy that the word “peoples” is used in the plural, and that “other religions” are named; both of these points demonstrate a certain desire to recognize the pluralism of Russian society. Russian Federation, Federal Assembly, Law no. 125 (26 September 1997).