Axel Kaehne

In the first article of a three-part-series debate on Russian statehood, Axel Kaehne argues that western political theory has often been superimposed on Russia without redefining the concepts of liberalism and statehood in the Russian context. He analyses two different models of liberal statehood that have come out of Russia in the last decade and reconsiders the implications for Western political theory.

In this final article, Kaehne considers the implications of Akhiezer’s critique on the applicability of Western political theory for Russia from his article How different are we. The political-theoretical perspective that Kaehne employs can only be of partial and limited value when it comes to the sociological and cultural rifts that exist in Russia, it seems.