Changing Connections between Capitalism and Democracy, in Russia and Worldwide

The essay explores the distinctions between two major flaws of contemporary Russian democracy - imperfection and dysfunctionality. While the former notion refers to the violations of democracy as a "method" (alluding to Schumpeter) the latter one describes democracy's uncoupling from social justice. In contrast to imperfection, democracy's dysfunctionality manifests itself as a worldwide tendency driven by democracy's subjugation to a new type of capitalism which we call "financialized capitalism". Its huge strides toward maturity have been recently evidenced by the so-called global financial crisis. The essay aspires to delineate the crucial features of "financialized capitalism" and to show its divergence from both Max Weber's "rational" (modern) capitalism and Karl Marx's model of capitalism as a "mode of production".