The theme of the current issue of the Russian Social Science Review is comparison. (For earlier issues featuring comparative studies from various fields, see vol. 57, no. 2; vol. 55, no. 4; vol. 54, nos. 2 and 3.)
In our first selection (“The Role of the West in Evolving World Order, and Russian Politics”), Alexei D. Voskressenski describes the modernization trajectories of a wide variety of countries and their implications for regional and international security. He observes that non-democracies of various types have not only endured but are competing with modernized democracies over their ability to provide public goods and maintain international order. Inasmuch as authoritarian leaders are inclined to take international interactions “personally,” being focused on the symbols of recognition of their status by other members of the international community, Voskressenski sees serious potential for misunderstanding and conflict between authoritarian states and more democratic ones. He also argues that a country’s leaders can advance democratization and modernization by prioritizing relations with their more democratic counterparts.
A lot to think about.
Our second selection (“A Typology of European Values and Russians’ Basic Human Values”) analyzes Russian values in terms of the values classifications used in European surveys. Coauthors Magun, Rudnev, and Schmidt demonstrate how these values types are distributed across the countries of Europe and identify the factors associated with this distribution. They then describe the prevalence of various values types in Russia and how the patterns have changed over time, observing a statistically significant shift toward individualistic values among Russia’s younger generations.
In our final selection (“Comparison as a Universal Learning Action”), psychologist Tatyana Merkulova proposes an approach to comparison as a universal competency that students should master and be able to use in handling real-life dilemmas: “The comparative logical operation, which identifies the similarities and differences between two or more objects, forms the basis of comparison as a universal learning action, but it is not the same thing. Rather, the latter juxtaposes objects within a pragmatic context, in order to achieve a certain goal. The goal determines the objects that are compared as well as the properties and features of the comparison.”
—P.A.K.