The Res Publica Project at the European University at Saint Petersburg

Dr. Oleg Kharkhordin, the project head

The European University at Saint Petersburg was founded in 1994. According to the rating published by the London School of Economics, the EUSP is the only Russian institution of higher learning amongst the top hundred centers for political science in Europe.

The goal of the project is the study and popularization of classical republican theory in Russia. Republicanism is viewed as a viable alternative to liberalism and closely bound up with the theory and practice of local self-government. Classical republic theory identifies the state and its citizens, who do not “transfer” but merely “delegate” their authority to rulers. This theory makes broad use of the history of the medieval city-states of Novgorod and Venice.

In the spring of 2006, the EUSP organized a series of seminars on classical republican theory:

• “The Classical Republican Theory of Liberty as an Alternative to Liberalism,” which featured a lecture entitled “Three Concepts of Liberty,” by Quentin Skinner (Cambridge University);
• a seminar by Bernard Manin (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris) entitled “The Lot as an Alternative to Elections: Mechanisms for Appointing Magistrates in Classical Republics”;
• a seminar by Robert Putnam (Harvard University), “The Republic and Social Capital.”

Seminar participants included scholars from Petersburg and Moscow, as well as members of the public at large.

The project has formed the Res Publica Research Center, which runs a summer school and a competition for graduate stipends and postdoctoral positions.

Sixteen young university teachers and grad students from Petersburg, Petrozavodsk, Tomsk, and Armenia took part in the 2006 Summer School. They not only discussed the classics of republican theory (the works of Cicero, the history of Novgorod up to 1471), but also presented their own research on the theory and practice of self-government.

In the fall of 2006, the Res Publica Research Center launched a regular seminar. Seminar participants discuss such topics as the revival of interest in classical republican theory in sociology; classical republican theory as a real alternative to the dominance of liberalism in political theory; and local self-government and the contemporary city in Russia.

In 2006, the center published a Russian edition of Quentin Skinner's Liberty before Liberalism.