ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the constellation of political forces—parties, movements, and blocs—that has emerged in postcommunist Russia. It analyses these forces according to categories that are basic to any political order, namely those of "state" and "property." At all levels the legislature's authority would be sharply delimited in order to establish those strong executive institutions that Gavrill Popov regards as essential for instituting a private property system based on individual ownership. Andrew Arato has developed some categories useful to analysis of contemporary Russian politics: state, political society, and civil society. "Political society," which mediates between the two terms, involves strategic communication intended to translate specific projects originating in civil society into policies adopted by the state. The conditions attending the birth of the Russian state therefore divided the "parties of power" from the "parties of society."
