Modernization Theory: Between Science and Politics. Case of Russia

• Applicant: Svitlana Shcherbak, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Political Science
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 537213066

The Conception of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, adopted on March, 2023, for the first time defines Russia as a “civilization state”. Russia is seen there as a conservative and technologically oriented sovereign state opposed to the West. Russian official ideology combines a conservative political agenda with the idea of technological modernization. It is a paradigm shift that did not come out of nowhere. This research project investigates the academic (i.e., social science) and political discourse gradually has introduced this shift in the post-Soviet area in regard to Western modernization theory. It examines how modernization theory has been perceived and transformed in the contemporary Russian cultural and political context since 1990, compared to its original formulation in the Western social science, and how social theory has become an important ideological concept in Russian politics. For achieving this goal, the research is based on a qualitative discourse analysis. For the case study “Russia 1990 to 2023”, the theory of modernization was chosen because it is a grand theory that offer a broad vision of history and social development, being an important part of social imagination for all societies. Modernization theory reflects not only deep assumptions of the societies in which it emerges, but also of recipient societies. The case of Russia is particularly interesting, because the concept of modernization retains a central place in Russian political discourse, even though the basic assumptions of modernization theory contradict Russia’s self-description.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position