Friday, 29 March 2024

E Editorial

Revolutions and State Institutions

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The study of the histories of the famous revolutions leads to one common conclusion typical of all post-revolutionary developments. Witnesses of the French, Russian, and other revolutions unanimously claim that after the revolutions, as a rule, there are cases of perversion of state institutions and decline of moral norms.

The representatives of the older generation still remember that the collapse of the Soviet Union was followed by contradictory phenomena. The point is that the main concern of the police in these turbulent times is to ensure their own security, while military discipline and order are destroyed in the armed forces. As in the military, so in the realm of economic activity comes the “law of the strong.” Whoever is more daring and reckless, he implements the “restoration of justice,” that is, redistributes property and capital at his own discretion, taking advantage of the “people's demand” to punish the “exploiters.”

Revolutions, regardless of whether they are “velvet” or not, are always accompanied by similar phenomena and, no matter how different in form or name, are in the same logic and logic of the same consequences.

The same situation is in Armenia today, which was predictable, and what the well-known figures in the history of revolutions warned about. According to most of them, revolutions are evil and are usually characterized by cataclysms (destruction). In many cases, this is the price that society pays to rise to a new level of development, when all the legal means to achieve the required changes are exhausted.

It is important to consider how the term “revolution” has been used in the Chinese language. Until 1895, there was no word for “revolution” in Chinese (before that there was “uprising”).  Later it was imported from Japanese, and at the same time means both change and opportunity.

If we consider the revolution in that logic, interesting questions may arise: did we use the events of 2018, which were undoubtedly a political transformation, as an opportunity to appear at a higher level of development?

With any revolution, if it serves that purpose, a new prospect of development must be opened, a new value system must be formed, and state institutions must become more advanced structures. Otherwise, we are dealing with an “uprising.”

We are experiencing events that seem to be leading to a negative response. The events in Gavar, when the mob took bloody revenge in the presence of the police, when the judiciary is paralyzed and the principle of inviolability of property is in question, without which the economy cannot be established, show that state institutions are not improving.  Rather, the opposite process is taking place.

This process must be stopped. Revolutionary changes must be based on worldview, economics, legal theories, and political thought. This work is being done badly in Armenia, and not only the “revolutionaries” are to blame. It is the consequence of the shortcomings of our society's thought. However, there always comes a time when the people's instinct for self-salvation begins to work. And maybe today is that moment?

The Armenian Center for National and International Studies

Yerznkian 75, 0033
Yerevan, Armenia

Tel.:

+374 10 528780 / 274818

Website:

www.acnis.am

  

The views of the authors do not necessarily reflect those of the Center.

While citing the content, the reference to "ACNIS ReView from Yerevan” is obligatory.