LOOK AT ALL THOSE NOUNS IN A ROW - AUTHORITARIANISM, DEMOCRACY, AND THE ICONICITY OF POLITICAL RUSSIAN

A linguistic evolution that is encountered repeatedly in transitions f rom authoritarianism to democracy is recurring in contemporary Russia. A very frequent, and perhaps universal, feature of authoritarianism i s the confinement of political deliberation to a language markedly sep arate from the vernaculars spoken by populations under authoritarian r ule. Transitions toward democracy, whether ultimately successful or fa iling, commonly begin when someone-perhaps one of the authoritarian ru lers, perhaps one of the people living under domination-transgresses t he rules separating speech about politics from everyday speech. In pol ities that complete the transition to election of national leaders by a universal franchise, the speech of electoral politicians merges into everyday speech. The rapprochement with the vernacular, which is meas urable by change in the iconicity of political speech, reducer the con ceptual distance separating rulers from the people. Reduction of conce ptual distance invites Russian citizens to believe in the efficacy of democratic participation.