Legitimacy and Threat in Russian Foreign Agent Law : Policymakers' commentaries on the law in state media 2012-2022
Serbin, Ivan (2023)
2023
Master's Programme in Global Society
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2023-05-05
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304214080
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202304214080
Tiivistelmä
The following thesis looks into the process of installation of the legal category of the foreign agent in Russia between 2012 and 2022. This research on the foreign agent law as a spreading model rationalising a favourable model of civil society looks into the practices of legitimisation and local systems of classification embedded in policy-making. The theoretical framing of this work approaches the phenomena as a continuous articulation of the category derived from the background myths preceding action. Operating on the level of binary codes outlining the basics of distinction between Us and Them through the relation to the sacred symbols, the category of foreign agent constructs the legitimacy of the Russian state vis-a-vis potential allies and adversaries within and outside of the national borders.
This work approaches the phenomena from a broad theoretical and methodological perspective which aims at accounting for 1) the constitution of actors through external legitimisation and 2) the operationalisation of codes constructing legitimacy itself. In this sense, this work follows a grand ambition of combing potentials and bridging gaps between contemporary neo-institutionalism and neo-functionalism. This approach attempts to look into the logic of classification constrained between global rationality and local knowledge.
The findings of the thesis present an overview of authoritative ideas regarding the state of the world, appropriate political practices and actors. These tacit concepts drive policy-making by providing convincing interpretations of the situation at hand. By appealing to such common-sensical ideas advocates of the policy construct the legitimacy of the Russian state to foreign and domestic audiences. However, instead of providing ready-made action models the broad ideas regarding ontology serve as raw material for interpretation. By sequencing the arrangement of discourses employed in the policy-making which gradually presents previously unarticulated aspects of social reality the commentators bridge the gap between the global cultural principle and the institutionalised category.
This work approaches the phenomena from a broad theoretical and methodological perspective which aims at accounting for 1) the constitution of actors through external legitimisation and 2) the operationalisation of codes constructing legitimacy itself. In this sense, this work follows a grand ambition of combing potentials and bridging gaps between contemporary neo-institutionalism and neo-functionalism. This approach attempts to look into the logic of classification constrained between global rationality and local knowledge.
The findings of the thesis present an overview of authoritative ideas regarding the state of the world, appropriate political practices and actors. These tacit concepts drive policy-making by providing convincing interpretations of the situation at hand. By appealing to such common-sensical ideas advocates of the policy construct the legitimacy of the Russian state to foreign and domestic audiences. However, instead of providing ready-made action models the broad ideas regarding ontology serve as raw material for interpretation. By sequencing the arrangement of discourses employed in the policy-making which gradually presents previously unarticulated aspects of social reality the commentators bridge the gap between the global cultural principle and the institutionalised category.