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English to Thai: RUSSIA POLITICS AND SOCIETY Detailed field: Government / Politics
Source text - English Nearly two decades have passed since the fall of the Soviet communist system in 1991.
Russia remains balanced between consolidating the democratic aspirations that accompanied
the fall of the old regime and reproducing in new forms the authoritarianism that was
overthrown at that time. There are undoubtedly major achievements recorded in these years.
The basic framework of a democratic law-governed state has been established, enshrined
in the constitution adopted in December 1993. Some of the fundamental institutions of
such a state have also been established, notably a differentiated legal system, authoritative
executive institutions, a functioning legislature and a viable representative system, together
with a market-oriented economy. Relations with the former members of the Soviet Union
have been strained, but no Yugoslav-style inter-state wars involving Russia have broken out,
while Russia’s relations with the rest of the world are now probably more stable than at any
time in the past, although characterised by persistent tensions. There are, however, many
aspects of Russia’s post-communist evolution that give concern. Although the framework
and institutions of a democratic society have been established, political practices of leaders
at all levels often undermine the spirit of democracy. This is most in evidence during
elections, where the weakness of an independent media and civil society allows executive
authorities considerable leeway. Above all, the wars in Chechnya (1994–6, 1999–2003)
entailed untold suffering and abuse of human rights.
This book will try to provide a balanced and informative analysis of post-communist
Russian institutional, political and social development. The structure of this version substantially
follows that of the third edition, published in 2002, although there have been
some changes. Chapter 1 now contains a revised summary of Soviet politics, providing
some historical context as background to contemporary developments. Detailed analysis of
the events leading up to the violent confrontation of October 1993, and details of the evolution
of the current constitution, can be found in a new Chapter 3, which brings together
discussion of the ‘phoney democracy’ period between 1991 and 1993. The chapters in Part
II have been reordered, while the material in Part VI has been much condensed. The focus
of this book is less on the presidency of Boris Yeltsin (1991–9) and more focused on that of
Vladimir Putin (2000–8). A further major change is the addition of the Russian constitution
as an appendix, which was removed from the third edition to save space, a move that was
much criticised. Overall, the material has been updated to reflect events up to the end of
Vladimir Putin’s two-term presidency. Plenty of echoes of the earlier versions remain, but
this edition focuses on the challenges facing Russia in the twenty-first century.
The restructuring and updating have been the relatively easy part. Far harder has been
the attempt to make sense of it all. Already in the preface to the second edition in 1996
I noted that the glad days of the early post-communist years (reflected to a degree in the
tone of the first edition of 1993) had given way to foreboding about the erosion of Russia’s
tenuous democratic gains. I argued in 1996 that between the people and the state a ‘regime
system’ based on Yeltsin personally had emerged that undermined the consolidation of the
constitutional state and the autonomy of social institutions in one direction, and stunted
the growth of an active civil society, accountability and representative system on the other.
In 1996 only the outlines of a type of oligarchical capitalism that funded the regime and
blurred the distinction between particularistic economic and general state interests were
visible. The heyday of oligarchical capitalism and regime elitism lasted a bare two years,
between Yeltsin’s re-election for a second term in 1996 and the financial crash of August
1998. The appointment of Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister in September 1998, and
even more the emergence of Putin as Yeltsin’s successor in 1999, signalled the reassertion of
a ‘statist’ line that sought to regain a relative autonomy for the state, freed from the deathly
embrace from the oligarchs and Yeltsin’s personalised ‘courtly’ style of regime rule. The
reassertion of the state in the early 2000s, however, threatened further to undermine the
free development of autonomous political institutions in society. Putin’s advocacy of a
liberal economic model appeared balanced by a rather more traditional monocentric model
of politics and a distinctively Russian type of neo-patrimonialism in the economy. State
capture by big business gave way to elements of business capture by the state. At the same
time, a more assertive foreign policy provoked confrontational echoes of the Cold War era.
This is the stage in which we now find ourselves. The question ‘is Russia a democracy?’
resounds ever more insistently as press freedom appears under attack, political pluralism
is restricted and elections are hedged in by growing restrictions. The anarchic pluralism of
the Yeltsin years has given way to a more stable but exclusive state-centred system. This
book promises no simple answer to questions about the nature of Russian democracy or
the meaning of contemporary political developments, but it does argue that the potential
for democratic political evolution remains strong. The story of post-communist Russian
political reconstitution is far from over, and although Russia may well revert to some
kind of authoritarianism, more likely will be renewed democratic advance, occasioned by
leadership change and elite renewal. This book provides the historical and institutional
framework to help understand the dynamics of development, some of the economic and
social context, and presents the key debates and issues within which the reader can make
up his or her mind on the way that Russia has developed. If the book allows the reader
to take a balanced and informed view of contemporary Russian politics, then it will have
succeeded in its purpose.
Canterbury
November 2007
Translation - Thai This descriptive research studied social supports and weight-controlled behaviours of some students from health science department in one university. The relationship between social supports and weight-controlled behaviours was also exploited. The research was hinged on the social support concept proposed by House (1985) and the past research conducted by Ploychayarintr Ravinij (2015). The samples were undergraduate students from health science department in one university located in Lower Northern Thailand during academic year 2018. The population of the sample was 267 students. Questionnaire on the social supports related to weight-controlled behaviours was used as a tool for collecting data. The content validity of the questionnaire was measured by the index of item-objective congruence (IOC). The IOC of the questionaire was between 0.67-1. The discrimination power results in r>2. Reliability was measured by the Cronbach’s alpha, which had the value of 0.863. The collected data was analysed with descriptive statistics and Pearson’s coefficient correlation.
The result shows that the social supports of information and items are not related to eating behaviours. The social support of health assessment has low negative relationship on eating behaviours. The statistical significance on the relationship between the social support of health assessment and eating behaviours is 0.05 (r=0.005). In contrast, the social support of emotion has low positive relationship on eating behaviours. The statistical significance on the relationship between the social support of emotion and eating behaviours is 0.05 (r=0.001). The social supports of information, health assessment and emotion have no relationship to workout behaviours. In contrast, the social support of items has low positive relationship on workout behaviours. The statistical significance on the relationship between the social support of items and workout behaviours is 0.05 (r=0.000). The result from this research can be adopted for planning of health promotion activities in students before their graduations. The students can thereupon be role models for health promotion.
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PhD - Thammasat
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Years of experience: 15. Registered at ProZ.com: Dec 2018.