> <
>
> to my mind [which, BTW, is mostly ignorant of things
> Russian], Putin's
> popularity is easy to explain.
>
> Almost everyone outside the anarchist community
> agrees with Thomas
> Hobbes, i.e., that the state must monopolize the
> legitimate use of
> force in the country (living up to Weber's
> definition). Otherwise, you
> get mob rule, bandits, poor-nasty-brutish-short
> lives, etc. Yeltsin
> either couldn't pull this off because he didn't have
> the power or
> wasn't the right guy for the job. On the other hand,
> Putin is the Man
> on the White Horse. It doesn't matter if he
> persecutes some corrupt
> oil baron for person political gain (while leaving
> similarly corrupt
> oligarchs off the hook) as long as he does "job
> one," maintaining order.
>
> In this view, the Russians see the
> "neo-authoritarian dictatorship of
> Vladimir Putin" as a _good thing_.
> --
> Jim Devine
> "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go
> your own way and let
> people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
>
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
Nu, zayats, pogodi!
__________________________________ Discover Yahoo! Use Yahoo! to plan a weekend, have fun online and more. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/