Federalism and Local Politics in Russia

The problem of effective representation 153consider as political, since the population of an ethnos was incapable ofparticipating in decision-making regarding the common good.Presently, communitarianism is to a large extent a reaction to a tendencytowards individualization, which is characteristic of contemporary society. Itpoints to negative consequences of people’s withdrawal from the politicalsphere, diminishing trust, social capital, solidarity, etc. 11 This type of representationlooks as if it is normative and prescriptive. It can, nonetheless, be afeasible practice, provided that public issues are more the focus of politicalcompetition than private interests. This provides an incentive for politicalactors to work out their positions vis-à-vis the public agenda. So far,representation practices in European states are rather close to this verytype, whereas the American political tradition leans towards the firstmodel.The opposition between the public and the private is closely connectedwith the issue of universalism versus particularism. As Delanty notes, thelatter is one of the fundamental contradictions of a political community. Onthe one hand, the polis was originally considered as a certain universal,somewhat similar to the cosmos. On the other hand, the actually existingpolices were local and exclusive because they were based upon the principleof rigid distinction between ‘self’ and ‘other’. ‘The ambivalence in themeaning of “community” … has always been central to the idea of a community.’12 Overall, universalism and particularism should be considered asmore or less clearly marked tendencies relative to each other rather thancertain absolutes, ‘a stable state of a system’. An‘absolute political universal’is only possible as an idea (Christian universalism, Communist society,totalitarianism, etc.). So far, as humanity is divided into different politicalentities, universalism in any cosmo-political sense is unrealistic. On the otherhand, ‘absolute political particularism’ is hardly possible either, as politics isa collective activity by nature. As was noted above, politicians try to dress evenpurely private (in their original subjective sense) interests into public clothes.Hence, there is a continuum between two ‘ideal’ poles –‘universalism’ and‘particularism’, and actual practices of political representation are somewherewithin this continuum but never taking extreme forms.As a rule, the first type of representation is characterized by actors focusingon representing themselves as defenders of interests of particular groups(segments) of the political community – local communities, professional,ethnic, religious, etc. Political competition under the conditions of the secondtype of representation is, on the contrary, to a larger extent based on ‘publicdiscourse’ –national interests, universal welfare, ‘political agendas’ (reforms,programmes) aimed at the political community as a whole.Let us now consider the second issue – the mechanisms of political representation.Undoubtedly, one of the main instruments of representation areorganized interest groups, which usually do not attempt to bring bodies ofpublic authority under their direct control but prefer to act through variousofficials and public politicians. Among those are members of parliament