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Dr. Elke Fein, IFIS
Taming the bear: Integral politics and non-democratic leaders
Dialog with demons?
From an integral perspective, western politics in relation to non-democratic leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Donald Trump and similar figures often comes across as clumsy and naive. In fact, part of the problem seems to be that democratic leaders have a hard time imagining that their fellow counterpart, after all, does not behave according to similar overall values, standards and principles. Yet, that is obviously the case.
For the sake of topicality, this Colloquium will focus on Russia.
Given the current crisis around Ukraine, Western politics and the media are once again trying, more or less successfully, to make sense of Putin's behavior. Yet, from a developmentally- informed perspective, "cracking the Russia riddle" or "the secret Putin" seems a far less enigmatic and mysterious endeavor.
For many decades, adult development research has been concerned with how vertical personality development affects the thinking and behavior of leaders. For instance, if we look at Putin's leadership behavior from the developmental logic of the Jane Loevinger/Susanne Cook-Greuter ego development model, it becomes not only comprehensible but also to some extent predictable. So how can (or should) a more integral and developmentally informed politics deal with similar challenges?
Based on claims explained in more detail in two earlier publications (Wagner & Fein, 2016), the Colloquium is an invitation into an integral political Think Tank conversation. At the example of the logic of reasoning and behavior demonstrated by Vladimir Putin since his advent to power in 1999, we will look at how an integral, developmentally informed politics could come up with smarter, more adequate strategies and responses posed to democratic politics by non-democratic, lower level political leaders.
Recording of the Colloquium (presentation and Q&A)
Recommended readings:
Elke Fein & Anastasija Wagner (2016): “Vladimir Putin as a political leader – challenges to an AD-informed analysis of politics and political culture”, in: Behavioral Development Bulletin, vol. 21, 204-222
Elke Fein & Anastasija Wagner (2016): “Vladimir Putin’s political leadership in action – two developmentally informed case studies on domestic and foreign politics”, in: Behavioral Development Bulletin, vol. 21
Putin's speech on Feb 21, 2022 (German translation)
Comment by the German Association of Historians of Eastern Europe
Comment by Reinhard Veser (F.A.Z.): F.A.Z. Der Tag: Der Staat, den es nicht geben darf
Interview with Michail Chodorkovskij (CNN), confirming the claims made in this Colloquium