Russian Studies and Comparative Politics: Views from Metatheory and Middle-Range Theory

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This book brings together several of the authors empirical studies that demonstrate the strength and utility of sociologist Robert Mertons classic middle-range theory for understanding aspects of both Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Some of those studies demonstrate that testing middle-range social science theory could take place even in the Soviet era when there were significant limitations of access to empirical data, and meaningful field research in the USSR was all but impossible. In the introductory chapter, the author explains the need for and advantages of studying Russian and Soviet politics from the perspective of middle-range social science theory. Then follow three chapters analyzing methodological issues in Soviet/post-Soviet studies. The author presents his six empirical studies employing middle-range social science theories to explore in Russia/USSR dimensions of organizations, ideology and decisionmaking, technology transfer and cultural diffusion, political culture, public opinion and democratization, and congruence of authority patterns in state-society relations. The book concludes with a chapter arguing the advantages of thinking theoretically about Russian and Soviet politics with the establishment of a new epistemic community organized around studies employing middle-range theory. This book presents examples of solutions to long-standing debates between area studies and the academic disciplines and between idiographic and nomothetic approaches to knowledge in the social sciences. In contrast to the tradition of Carnivals and Cockfights in Russian/Soviet area studies since the mid-20th Century, the book offers a new way of approaching the study of Russian politics for the 21st Century.

Reviews

The book serves as a valuable reminder of how the study of Russian politics can benefit from and contribute to cumulative knowledge, and it should be a worthwhile addition to seminars on the conduct of inquiry and comparative politics. * Slavic Review *
Nobody has done more over the years than Frederic J. Fleron Jr. to close the methodological gap between information-rich Soviet/Russian Studies and the theory-driven field of comparative politics, and to facilitate learned communication between the study of the Soviet Union and Russia and the mainstream discipline of political science. Many of his key contributions to the discussion are revisited in this latest volume along with new chapters reframing the issues in terms of progress made and the distance yet to be traveled. In this study, Fleron has successfully provided a well-crafted portal into the possibilities and opportunities for the application of middle-range theory in the field of Russian studies. This fine book closes with a tour-de-force conclusion which is at once sophisticated, insightful, historically grounded, and clearly expressed. -- Robert Sharlet, Union College
Frederic J. Fleron Jr. has long been at the forefront of efforts to foster methodological rigor in Soviet and post-Soviet studies and to integrate work in this area more fully into the mainstream of the discipline of comparative politics. This book marks a suitable capstone for these missions. It will be of interest to area specialists and comparativists alike. -- Munroe Eagles, State University of New York at Buffalo

Author Bio

Frederic J. Fleron Jr. is university research scholar and professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo.