Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus 
Illuminating the Arts-Policy Nexus is a fortnightly series of articles on the role of art in public policymaking. This series invites WPI fellows and project leaders as well as external practitioners to contribute pieces on how artists have led policy change and how policymakers can use creative strategies.
In Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in a G-Zero World, World Policy Institute Senior Fellow Ian Bremmer illustrates a historic shift in the international system and the world economy—and an unprecedented moment of global uncertainty.
World Policy Institute - Calendar of Events
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FALL 2001 LECTURE SERIES The World Policy Institute RUSSIA’S DEMOCRATIC EXPERIMENT: ARMAGEDDON AVERTED A Presentation by STEPHEN KOTKIN With a commentary by STEPHEN HOLMES Moderated by NINA KHRUSHCHEVA In 1991, the world looked in amazement at the collapse of the Soviet Union. But as Stephen Kotkin suggests, this downfall was neither sudden nor unexpected but rather inevitable. In his new book, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000 (Oxford University Press, 2001), Kotkin illuminates the factors that led to the downfall of Communism and the USSR, following the global economic changes from the 1970s to the present day as his guide. Explaining the "stable mess" in post-Soviet Russia, Kotkin makes a compelling distinction between liberalism and democracy. He argues that even democratically elected leaders often behave like dictators unless they are constrained by the liberal order, the rule of law. Yeltsin’s Russia was all too eager to become a capitalistic democracy, which ignited the prompt removable of all institutional constraints beginning in 1991. But "liberalism," Kotkin reminds us, "entails not freedom from government but constant, rigorous officiating of the private sphere…[it] means not just representative government but effective government, a geopolitical imperative for prosperity in the hierarchical world economy." Stephen Holmes, also well-known for the argument that freedom requires rules, believes that liberalism’s basic principles provide a foundation for the development of democratic and regulatory politics. Using these concepts, he will address the institutional implications of the Soviet collapse and the prospects for liberalism for Russia’s future. Friday, December 7th, 2001, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. RSVP 212-229-5808 ext. 4272 to reserve seating or Email: wpi@newschool.edu . If you need special accommodations, please call at least five days before panel event.
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