Архив журнала

Abstract: This article is a result of author’s reflection on political metaphor and its power to cause political phenomena. On the concrete example of the democratization process in Russia, the author shows the process of transition from the metaphors of the Soviet authoritarianism to those of the electoral Russian politics. It is argued that the change in the political phenomena is caused by the change in metaphors (and no other cause has been found so far) through their capacity to cue recognition of social identity. Political leaders by using different kinds of metaphors can establish a certain pattern of social identification typical of democratic or undemocratic rule and thus transform the behavior of the population and determine the social and political reality in terms of this or that regime