How Flexible Authoritarianism Looks and Feels

Abstract

Abstract This chapter establishes flexible authoritarianism as more than an abstract ideology; it operates at concrete sites, can be experienced, and is shaped by people co-creating these sites. Government-sponsored youth-leadership summer camps take place in all of Russia’s federal districts. They are political spectacles, intended to legitimate flexible authoritarianism by staging youthful support for the regime, influencing young people’s self-perception, and engaging them as co-creators of a government-sponsored civic life. These camps resemble business start-up meetings—enhancing campers’ project management and grant-writing skills—as much as Soviet summer camps. While seeking to engender creativity and ambition, the camps uphold an authoritarian Erziehungsstil that discourages independent thinking and cooperation among peers. Based on the author’s observations as a participant and young campers’ perceptions of their camp experience, the chapter provides a thick description of how flexible authoritarianism operates through narratives, images, symbols, music, and routines.