Welcome to the RUCARR Distinguished Speaker Series April 14!

Title

"The Role of Traditional Moral Appeals in Putinite Autocracy"

Speaker:

Henry E. Hale is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University (GW), where he also directs the Petrach Program on Ukraine and the Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies (IERES). Prominent themes in his research, which has won two prizes from the American Political Science Association, include identity politics, political regimes, individual-level political behavior, public opinion on international relations, and health behavior. His most recent books are The Zelensky Effect (Hurst and Oxford University Press, 2022, co-authored with Olga Onuch) and Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is lead editor of the textbook Developments in Russian Politics 10 (Bloomsbury, 2024) and chair of the editorial board for the journal Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization.

Abstract:

Over the last decade and a half, Russia's Kremlin has increasingly emphasized traditional moral values in its appeals for public support. This marked a major shift in regime strategy from its earlier "catch-all" approach to a socially divisive form of "wedge politics." Has this worked? What have been the consequences of this strategy for the regime? In this event, the speaker will examine data from Russia to show that the results have been mixed. Traditional moral appeals' most powerful effects have been to help the regime win support even from Putin opponents for major initiatives ranging from term-limit contravention to war. But at the same time, they have alienated some potential Putin supporters and inadvertently catalyzed a (relatively) moral liberal opposition coalition that is potentially larger than commonly believed.

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