Viktor Sidorov and Oleg Zaznaev awarded for monograph on ethnic conflicts

A ceremony was held by the Russian Association of Political Science at RUDN University.

A first degree diploma was handed over by President of RAPS Oxana Gaman-Golutvina in recognition of their book Forms of Government and Ethnic Conflicts.

The work is dedicated to a search of better forms of government for monoethnic and mutliethnic societies and governance design for the purpose of preemption and regulation of ethnic conflicts. Unaddressed research problems are discussed in regard to the links between forms of government and ethnic conflicts.

“The gist is which form of government – presidential, parliamentary, or mixed – is better in preemping, alleviating and resolving ethnic conflicts; this is what the unsolved problem is,” comments Professor Zaznaev.

The book characterizes an independent variable (form of government) and a dependent variable (ethnic conflicts), as well as an interfering variable (ethnic parties); a critical assessment is made of existing theories of the links between forms of government and ethnic conflicts; a theoretical and empirical analysis of relevant hypotheses is presented.

In essence, according to Dr Zaznaev, the summary shows that the presidential system has more resources to resolve ethnic conflicts.