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1 - Time matters: the dynamics of regime support

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Richard Rose ,
William Mishler  and
Neil Munro
Richard Rose
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
William Mishler
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
Neil Munro
Affiliation:
University of Aberdeen
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Summary

Time is the dimension in which ideas and institutions and beliefs evolve.

Douglass North

No decade in the history of politics, religion, technology, painting, poetry and what not ever contains its own explanation. In order to understand the religious events from 1520 to 1530 or the political events from 1900 to 1910 you must survey a period of much wider span. Not to do so is the hallmark of dilettantism.

Joseph A. Schumpeter

While the moment when a new regime is proclaimed can be a televised event, establishing support for a new regime is a process. It takes time for subjects to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the new regime and time to unlearn much that was taken for granted in the old regime. Reducing the complicated process by which people come to terms with a change in regimes to a single point in time is, as Schumpeter emphasizes, a sign of refusing to take a change of regimes seriously. It is a luxury that cannot be afforded by people who live through transformation and its aftermath.

To understand the dynamics of regimes, it is essential to recognize the difference between changes within a regime and changes between regimes. The former happens with considerable frequency; for example, elections offer regular opportunities for changing the persons or party in charge of government. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union managed a series of changes in leadership without disrupting the regime.

Type
Chapter
Information
Russia Transformed
Developing Popular Support for a New Regime
 , pp. 16 - 28
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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