Book Review: Comparative: Elites and Identities in Post-Soviet Space
| Date | 01 May 2014 |
| Published date | 01 May 2014 |
| DOI | 10.1111/1478-9302.12053_72 |
| Author | Vsevolod Samokhvalov |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
appointees? Altogether, by combining case-based
knowledge with detailed and cross-nationally compa-
rable data, the authors and editors have done those of
us interested in particularistic politics a great service.
Kim Sass Mikkelsen
(Aarhus University)
Elites and Identities in Post-Soviet Space by
David Lane (ed.). Abingdon: Routledge, 2012.
214pp., £85.00, ISBN 978 0 415 50022 7
The construction of new identities in the post-Soviet
space has been one of the most significant societal
processes occurring in the region following the dis-
mantling of the Soviet Union. Drawing on Anderson’s
work, David Lane has edited a collection of essays with
the aim of examining the role played by external and
internal elites in the construction of local, national,
regional or international identities.
The first part of the book looks into the external
and internal dimensions of identity construction.
Karolewski studies the transfer of European identity,
while Sakwa and Zeniewski look at the role of the
external dimension in shaping Russian identity and
the transformation of Polish Solidarity from a trade
union into a wider neo-liberal movement, respec-
tively. The second section looks at the process of elite
formation and its interaction with the population.
Best conducts a cross-cultural investigation of the
elite-population gap, while Bluhm, Martens and
Trappmann look into the role of business elites.
Lengyel’s contribution focuses on the supranational
attachment of European elites and citizens. In the
third part there are several case studies that analyse
how elites construct a new identity under the pressure
of external forces. Thus Melnykovkia with colleagues
and Solska look at the case of Ukraine and the Baltic
states, respectively, while Russell and Sharan examine
the situation in Chechnya and Afghanistan. Such a
diverse set of cases makes the volume interesting for
social constructivist theorists, regional experts, students
and researchers in democratisation and nation-
building, and transitologists.
Overall, the book achieves its main goals in dem-
onstrating the role of elites and other factors in shaping
identities in the post-Soviet space. Most of the case
studies use different methodologies and resonate with
the main Andersonian framework of the book. At the
same time, the thematic breadth and methodological
variety of the case studies do not facilitate exploring
in-depth the role and interplay of different conceptual
factors presented in the case studies. For example, some
of them attribute the agency of identity formation to
the elite (Zeniewski, p. 53), whereas others focus on
the population (Best, p. 72). The book could have
taken this question further to demonstrate how these
two dimensions interact.
Another interesting aspect of the book is the analysis
of nation-building in the examples of Chechnya and
Afghanistan. However, if Anderson’s idea of ‘nation’
as being an imagined community and a product of
modernity explains some of the processes taking place
in these largely pre-modern societies, the study might
have gone further and asked whether these processes
are identical or if they have been modified by local
structural conditions and contingencies. Such lingering
questions are perhaps an unavoidable feature of any
collective research exercise, but they are valuable
nevertheless in providing food for thought for further
empirical inquiry and theoretical reflections on identity
formation.
Vsevolod Samokhvalov
(University of Cambridge)
Party Strategies in Western Europe: Party Com-
petition and Electoral Outcomes by Gemma
Loomes. Abingdon: Routledge, 2011. 272pp.,
£80.00, ISBN 9780415601603
Gemma Loomes’ book analyses the impact of different
strategies on the fate of established parties in Western
Europe between 1950 and 2009. Chapter 1 defines
political parties as independent actors able to influence
the process of party system change. Chapters 2 and 3
define the different strategies that established parties
may adopt in order to maintain or enhance their sys-
temic positions. Parties may pursue electorate-oriented
strategies, thus acting as vote utility maximisers, or they
may engage in institutional-oriented strategies in line
with the ‘cartel thesis’ of Richard Katz and Peter Mair.
Chapter 4 deals with the operationalisation of the
research questions and Western European countries are
ranked according to the extent to which electorate-
oriented and institutional strategies are adopted by
established parties in order to achieve or maintain posi-
tions of systemic centrality. Chapter 5 analyses to what
BOOK REVIEWS 293
© 2014 The Authors. Political Studies Review © 2014 Political Studies Association
Political Studies Review: 2014, 12(2)
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