Can Western economics survive in an anti-Western regime? Intellectual universalism and the internationalization of economic science in Russia

Abstract

Over the last decade, Russia’s political regime has become increasingly anti-Western in its rhetoric and ideational foundations. At the same time, Russian social sciences, and particularly economics, have pursued the path of internationalization, declaring the goal of becoming part of the global academic community. How can one reconcile these two contradictory trends? The article offers an in-depth investigation of the evolution of the internationalization of economics in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. The authors argue that internationalization is a complex phenomenon, with some of its aspects being problematic for the anti-Western regime, with others being acceptable or even beneficial. In particular, they focus on the tension between two goals of internationalization: dissemination of Western ideas and concepts in the domestic community (i.e. the role of translators and public intellectuals) and participation in the international exchange of ideas (i.e. publication in English-language scholarly journals). In the 2010s, Putin’s regime promoted the second goal at the expense of the first, which was potentially more problematic from the point of view of the regime’s logic. The authors also highlight the importance of economics as source of policy advice, even for an anti-Western regime like Putin’s.