New School Politics

If you're a first time visitor, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed, which will keep you up to date with all the latest New School Politics posts. Thanks for visiting!

Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate in economics has said that, “History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom.” However, individual and political freedoms are on the decline in Russia, even as Russia has been reaping the rewards of a capitalist market economy under the leadership of President Putin. This trend toward less political freedom in Russia, if left unchecked, may result in a return to the authoritarian rule Russia endured in the Soviet era. So, what can the United States and the international community do to stop this?

Before Putin became President, Russia had been subjected to drastic economic and political reforms under President Yeltsin. This shock therapy resulted in the Russian government defaulting on loans worth billions of dollars, the value of the ruble dropping precipitously, and unemployment becoming rampant. As a result of this turmoil, many Russians desired a stronger central government that could offer them stability. Stability was the stated goal of Yeltsin’s successor, Vladimir Putin, and he achieved this through the consolidation of state power on all levels. While the internal security and stability have markedly increased during Putin’s reign, personal freedoms, including both political and economic freedom, have been declining. Economic freedom is now dismal; Russia ranks 120th out of 157 in the Index of Economic Freedom, a product of the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

Prominent businessmen have been put in prison, journalists bullied and sometimes killed, and privately owned companies, including media outlets and energy conglomerates, are being gobbled up by the State. This lack of political freedom is directly related to Russia’s lack of economic freedom. Indeed, Milton Friedman has said, “Restrictions on economic freedom inevitably affect freedom in general, even such areas as freedom of speech and press.”

Fortunately, for Putin, there have been dramatic increases in oil and natural gas prices. Russia has the most proven reserves of natural gas in the world, and this has been the main driving force of Russia’s economy. The wealth pouring into Russia’s coffers through its energy industries have made it possible for Putin to distract the Russian populace from the lack of personal freedoms. As such, political and economic freedoms have been on the decline, despite economic prosperity.

Establishing economic freedom in Russia is the key to increasing political freedom. Rather than punitive economic or diplomatic sanctions, the United States and the international community should attempt to use the forces of the market to compel economic, and thus political freedoms on Russia. Reduced energy prices would make the economic shortcomings of Russia more apparent to its own people. There are two ways to reduce oil and gas prices in a market economy: increase energy supplies globally, or reduce gas and oil demand through development of alternate energy sources or through conservation. Utilizing these market forces would be a long-term endeavor, but in a climate of lower energy prices, Russia’s economic prosperity would then more accurately reflect its lack of economic freedom. There would then be a chance for internal pressures to force Russia to make true economic reforms, and, hopefully, to create the right environment for political freedoms to take hold and flourish.

Last 5 posts by Iacopo

• China: It's To Die For - June 30th, 2007

Popularity: 36% [?]

The Capitalism in the Motherland by New School Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.