Le bourgeois gentilhomme: Political corruption of Russian doctorates

Demokratizatsiya

Volumn 18, Issue 3, 2010, Pages 260-280

  Osipian, Ararat L ^a  

^a VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

corruption; dissertations; doctorates; Duma; elites; politicians; Russia

Indexed keywords

CORRUPTION; ELITE POLITICS; IMAGE; SOCIAL STATUS;

RUSSIAN FEDERATION;

EID: 77956694180     PISSN: 10746846     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/DEMO.18.3.260-280     Document Type: Article

References (89)

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2. Stephen Heyneman, "Education and Corruption," International Journal of Educational Development 24, (2004): 638.
3. Ararat Osipian, "Investigating Corruption in American Higher Education: The Methodology," The FedUni Journal of Higher Education 4, no.2 (2009): 49-81;
4. and Ararat Osipian, "Corruption and Reform in Higher Education in Ukraine," Canadian and International Education Journal 38, no.2 (2009): 104-122.
5. Ararat Osipian, "Corruption in Higher Education: Conceptual Approaches and Measurement Techniques," Research in Comparative and International Education 2, no.4 (2007): 315.
6. Special academic boards, or "Spetsial'ny ucheny sovet."
7. Dissertation boards, or "Dissertatsionny sovet."
8. "Dissertatsii i avtoreferaty uchenyh budut proveriat' na plagiat v obiazatel'nom poriadke," ["Dissertations and autoreferates of the scholars will have to pass the obligatory check for plagiarism"], Newsru.com, July 5, 2007, available at http://www.newsru.com/russia/05jul2007/ plagiat- print.html (accessed July 14, 2010).
9. Dmitry Simakin, "Doktora nevidimogo fronta: Pochti tret' zashchishchennyh v poslednie gody dissertatsij napisana za den'gi" ["Doctors of invisible front: almost a third of all the dissertations defended during the last few years were written for money"], Nezavisimaya gazeta, March 24, 2006, available at http://www.ng.ru/inquiry/2006-03-24/1- doctors.html (accessed July 14, 2010).
10. Michael Nerad, "The PhD in the US: Criticisms, Facts, and Remedies," Higher Education Policy 17, no.2 (2004): 183-199.
11. V RF ezhegodno 10 tysiach dissertatsij pishutsia za den'gi (U kogo iz chinovnikov est' uchenye stepeni [In the Russian Federation, every year 10 thousand dissertations are written for money (Public officials who have doctoral degrees)], Newsru.com, March 24, 2006, available at http://www.newsru.com/ russia/24mar2006/disserts.html (accessed July 12, 2010).
12. "Fabrike znanij - svoj OTK. V sisteme attestatsii griadut peremeny, utverzhdaet glavny ucheny sekretar' VAK, Feliks Shamhalov" ["Own quality control department for the factory of knowledge. Chief Academic Secretary of VAK, Feliks Shamhalov, states that changes are coming to the system of attestation"], Rossijskaja gazeta, March 21, 2008, available at http://vak.ed.gov. ru/ru/news/vak/index.php?id4=803 (accessed July 6, 2010).
13. Georgy Petrov and Paul Temple, "Corruption in Higher Education: Some Findings from the States of the Former Soviet Union," Higher Education Management and Policy 16, no.1 (2004): 83-99.
14. Uwe Klussmann, "Duma's Dubious Degrees: The Russian Parliament Intellectual Giants," Der Spiegel, November 21, 2007, available at http://www.spiegel.de/international/ world/0,1518,518754,00.html (accessed July 6, 2010).
15. Uwe Klussmann, "Duma's Dubious Degrees: The Russian Parliament Intellectual Giants," Der Spiegel, 2007, http://www.spiegel.de/ international/world/0,1518,518754,00.html Ibid.
16. "Amerikanskie uchenye obvinili Putina v plagiate. Eto mozhet povlech massovuju proverku dissertatsiy rossijskih chinovnikov" ["American scholars accused Putin in plagiarism. This can result in a massive check of all the dissertations defended by Russian public officials"], Newsru. com, March 27, 2006, available at http://www.newsru.com/russia/27mar2006/disser.html (accessed July 20, 2010).
17. "V Germanii dissertatsii tozhe pokupajutsia - kak i v Rossii" ["In Germany, dissertations can also be purchased, as in Russia"], Newsru.com, March 13, 2008, available at http://www.newsru. com/world/13mar2008/ disser.html (accessed July 20, 2010).
18. Thomas Vitzthum, "Korruption: Gutes Geschäft mit gekauften Doktortiteln," Die Welt, March 12, 2008, available at http://www.welt.de/ politik/article1792387/Gutes-Geschaeft-mit-gekauften- Doktortiteln.html (accessed July 20, 2010).
19. Thomas Vitzthum, "Pribyl'ny biznes s kuplennoi dissertaciei" ["Profitable business with a purchased dissertation"], Inopressa.ru, March 13, 2008, available at http://www.inopressa.ru/ welt/2008/03/13/16:27:20/ dissertation (accessed July 20, 2010).
20. Michael Johnston, "The Search for Definitions: The Vitality of Politics and the Issue of Corruption," International Social Science Journal 149 (1996), 320-330.
21. Charles Sykes, ProfScam: Professors and The Demise of Higher Education (Washington, D.C.: Regnery Gateway, 1988): 229.
22. Olga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, "From Power to Property: The Nomenklatura in Post-Communist Russia." In Graeme Gill, ed., Elites and Leadership in Russian Politics (London: Macmillan Press, 1995), 81-105.
23. Olga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, "From Power to Property: The Nomenklatura in Post-Communist Russia." Elites and Leadership in Russian Politics Ibid., 92.
24. M. Gorshkov and N. Tihonova, Rossiya - novaya sotsial'naya real'nost'. Bogatye. Bednye. Sredniy klass [Russia - New Social Reality. Rich. Poor. Middle Class] (Moscow: Nauka, 2004).
25. Deputaty diskreditiruyut nauku [MPs discredit the sciences] Nezavisimaya Gazeta, May 21, 2004, available at http://www.newizv.ru/news/?id-news= 6719&date=2004-05-21 (accessed July 7, 2010).
26. Gaetano Mosca, The Ruling Class (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1939).
27. Arthur Livingston, Introduction. In Gaetano Mosca, The Ruling Class (New York: McGraw- Hill, 1939), ix-xli.
28. K. Mikul'skiy, L. Babaeva, E. Tarshis, L. Reznichenko, A. Chirikova, G. Lapina, Elita Rossii o nastoyashem i budushem strany [The Russian Elite on the Present and the Future of the Country] (Moscow: Institut Sotsiologii RAN, 1996).
29. Anton Steen and Vladimir Gel'man, Elites and Democratic Development in Russia (London: Routledge, 1999).
30. Anton Steen, Political Elites and the New Russia: The Power Basis of Yeltsin's and Putin's Regimes (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), 33.
31. Anton Steen, Political Elites and the New Russia: The Power Basis of Yeltsin's and Putin's Regimes 2003 33 Ibid.
32. Rating of State Institutions, Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), June 12, 2010, available at http://wciom.ru/novosti/reitingi/odobrenie- dejatelnosti-gosudarstvennykh-institutov. html (accessed July 8, 2010).
33. Steen, Political Elites and the New Russia, 156.
34. Steen, Political Elites and the New Russia Ibid., 156.
35. Steen, Political Elites and the New Russia Ibid., 158.
36. "HE," meaning "His/Her Excellency."
37. Michail Chernish, "Values in Contemporary Russian Society," In Jouko Nikula, ed., Restoration of Class Society in Russia? (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002), 122-132.
38. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, Sotsietal'naya transformatsiya rossiyskogo obshestva [Societal Transformation of Russian Society] (Moscow: Delo, 2002).
39. See also Tatiana Zaslavskaya, "O roli sotsial'noi struktury v transformatsii rossijskogo obshestva," in Tatiana Zaslavskaya, ed., Kuda idet Rossiya?.. vlast', obshchestvo, lichnost' [About the role of social structure in the transition of Russian Society. Where Does Russia Go?.. Power, Society, Personality. Societal Transformation of Russian Society] (Moscow: Delo, 2000).
40. Tatiana Zaslavskaya and Zinaida Kalugina, eds., Sotsial'naya traektoriya reformiruemoi Rossii [Social trajectory of the reforming of Russia] (Novosibirsk: Nauka, 1999).
41. Judith Kullberg, John Higley and Jan Pakulski, "Elites, Institutions and Democratisation in Russia and Eastern Europe," In Graeme Gill, ed., Elites and Leadership in Russian Politics (London: Macmillan Press, 1995), 106-130.
42. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, The Second Socialist Revolution: An Alternative Strategy (London: I.B.Taurus, 1990), 184.
43. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, The Second Socialist Revolution: An Alternative Strategy 1990 Ibid., 414.
44. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, Sotsial'nye orientiry obnovleniya: Obshestvo i chelovek [Social lighthouses of renovation: society and human] (Moscow: Izdatel'stvo politichersloy literatury, 1990).
45. Patricia Guadalupe, High Perceptions of Corruption in Former Soviet Nations, Gallup Poll (2007), available at http://www.gallup.com/poll/101767/ Perceptions-Corruption-Widespread- Former-Soviet-Nations.aspx (accessed July 1, 2010).
46. Patricia Guadalupe, High Perceptions of Corruption in Former Soviet Nations, Gallup Poll (2007), http://www.gallup.com/poll/101767/Perceptions- Corruption-Widespread- Former-Soviet-Nations.aspx Ibid.
47. Corruption is rated as the number-one problem in Russian business, named as such by 62 per- cent of surveyed businessmen in September 2009. This number is up from 43 percent in 2007 and 42 percent in 2008. See Corruption, Administrative Barriers, and Inflation: Three problems of the Russian Business, Russia Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), May 24, 2010, available at http:// wciom.ru/arkhiv/tematicheskii-arkhiv/item/single/13520.html?no-cache= 1&cHash=3eb4b839b6 (accessed June 12, 2010).
48. Viktor Petukhov, ed,. Kak my dumali v 2004 godu: Rossiya na pereput'e [The Way we Thought in 2004: Russia at the Crossroads]. (Moscow: Algoritm, 2005), 118.
49. Viktor Petukhov, ed,. Kak my dumali v 2004 godu: Rossiya na pereput'e [The Way we Thought in 2004: Russia at the Crossroads]. (2005) Ibid., 123.
50. Viktor Petukhov, ed,. Kak my dumali v 2004 godu: Rossiya na pereput'e [The Way we Thought in 2004: Russia at the Crossroads]. (2005) Ibid., 125.
51. Viktor Petukhov, ed,. Kak my dumali v 2004 godu: Rossiya na pereput'e [The Way we Thought in 2004: Russia at the Crossroads]. (2005) Ibid., 126.
52. Russians on bribes. Levada Center, 2010, http://www.levada.ru/press/ 2010051201.html (accessed July 1, 2010).
53. See, for instance, Ararat Osipian, "Corruption in Higher Education: Does it Differ Across the Nations and Why?," Research in Comparative and International Education 3, no.4 (2008): 345-365;
54. Ararat Osipian, "Replacing University Entry Examinations with Standardized Tests in Russia: Will It Reduce Corruption?," in D. Thompson and F. Crampton (Eds.), UCEA Conference Proceedings for Convention 2007, available at http://coe.ksu.edu/ucea/2007/Osipian2-UCEA2007. pdf;
55. and Ararat Osipian, "Vouchers, Tests, Loans, Privatization: Will They Help Tackle Corruption in Russian Higher Education?," Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education 39, no.1 (2009): 47-67.
56. The ruling regime prescribes to its grossly underpaid public servants, including educators, to "feed from the service" by making the rational choice of collecting bribes and other illicit benefits. Faculty members are first placed in conditions that encourage corruption and then indirectly blackmailed to comply with demands of central authorities. See Ararat Osipian, "'Feed from the Service': Corruption and Coercion in the State-University Relations in Central Eurasia," Research in Comparative and International Education, Oxford, 4, no.2 (2009): 183.
57. See, for instance, Osipian, "Corruption in the Politicized University: Lessons for Ukraine's 2010 Presidential Elections," Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, (2010), forthcoming;
58. and Osipian, "Feed from the Service": Corruption and Coercion in the State-University Relations in Central Eurasia," 182-203.
59. "Los Angeles Times: Moskva - mirovaya stolitsa bezzastenchivyh poddelok" ["Los Angeles Times: Moscow is the world capital of forgeries"], Newsru.com, July 11, 2006, available at http:// www.newsru.com/russia/11jul2006/forgery.html (accessed July 1, 2010).
60. Price given at referatna5.ru.
61. Price given at mosdiplom.ru.
62. Prices range from $4000 from diplomatiya.ru to $25000 from e-diplom.ru.
63. See, for instance, the price list of Diplomtime company at http://diplomtime.ru/price.aspx (accessed July 6, 2010).
64. Consulting company Robotron, http://robotron.ru/disser.html.
65. Aleksandr Khinshtein, Berezovsky i Abramovich: Oligarhi s Bolshoi Dorogi [Berezovsky and Abramovich: Highway Robber-Barons] (Moscow: Olma Media Group, 2007), 29.
66. Aleksandr Khinshtein, Berezovsky i Abramovich: Oligarhi s Bolshoi Dorogi [Berezovsky and Abramovich: Highway Robber-Barons] (2007) Ibid., 132.
67. The Federation Council is the upper chamber that consists of 178 members, and the State Duma is the lower chamber that consists of 450 members, for a total of 628 members.
68. Artem Verindub, "Slantsy Putina" [Putin's Shale], Russian Newsweek, June 7, 2004, http:// www.compromat.ru/main/nauka/disser.htm (accessed July 2, 2010).
69. As a related note, Alexander Korzhakov is also the author of Boris Yeltsin: ot rassveta do zakata [Boris Yeltsin: from sunrise to sundown] (Moscow: Interbook, 1997).
70. Marina Ozerova, "Parlament stal pustym mestom" ["Parliament became an empty place"], Moskovsky Komsomolets, March 12, 2009, http://www.mk.ru/blogs/MK/2009/03/12/society/399120/ (accessed July 2, 2010).
71. "Spiker Mironov vystupil protiv partiynogo pravitel'stva v Rossii" ["Speaker Mironov is against the party-based government in Russia"], Newsru.com, April 20, 2008, available at http:// www.newsru.com/russia/20apr2008/part.html (accessed June 23, 2010).
72. Larry Riggs, "The Issues of Nobility and Identity in Don Juan and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," The French Review 59, no.3 (1986): 399-409.
73. David Lane, Elites and Political Power in the USSR (Brookfield, VT: Elgar, 1988).
74. Loren Graham, What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience? (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998), 72.
75. See also: Loren Graham, ed., Science and the Soviet Social Order (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990);
76. Loren Graham, Science, Philosophy, and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union (New York: Columbia University Press, 1987).
77. Gary Neill, "Russian intellectuals - The hand that feeds them," The Economist, August 7, 2008.
78. Gary Neill, "Russian intellectuals - The hand that feeds them," The Economist, 2008 Ibid.
79. Gary Neill, "Russian intellectuals - The hand that feeds them," The Economist, 2008 Ibid., 242.
80. Thomas Hughes, "Lessons from Soviet Science and Technology - Essay Review of Loren Graham: What Have We Learned About Science and Technology from the Russian Experience?," Technology and Culture 41, no.2 (2000): 351.
81. The Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAN), available at http:// www.ipras.ru/cntnt/rus/informaciy/dlya-press/pop-nauka. html; http://www.ipras.ru/cntnt/rus/diskusionn/ arhiv-disk.html (accessed June 24, 2010).
82. Tatiana Zaslavskaya, The Second Socialist Revolution: An Alternative Strategy (London: I.B.Taurus, 1990), 186.
83. "Podavlyayushchee chislo rossiyan - za lishenie deputatov neprikosnovennosti, pokazal opros" ["The survey shows that the vast majority of Russians support the idea of depriving the MPs of immunity"] Newsru.com, January 11, 2009, available at http://www.newsru.com/russia/ 11jan2009/lishit.html (accessed June 14, 2010).
84. Stephen Heyneman, Kathryn Anderson, and Nazym Nuraliyeva, "The Cost of Corruption in Higher Education," Comparative Education Review 52, no.1 (2008): 1-27.
85. Ararat Osipian, "Political Graft and Education Corruption in Ukraine: Compliance, Collusion, and Control," Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 16, no.4 (2008): 323-344;
86. and Osipian, "Corruption and Coercion: University Autonomy versus State Control," European Education: Issues and Studies 40, no.3 (2008): 27-48.
87. Ararat Osipian, "Corruption Hierarchies in Higher Education in the Former Soviet Bloc," International Journal of Educational Development 29, no.3 (2009): 321-330;
88. Osipian, "Corruption Hierarchies in Education in Developing and Transition Societies," in D. Thompson and F. Crampton (Eds.), UCEA Conference Proceedings for Convention 2007, available at http://coe.ksu. edu/ucea/2007/Osipian1-UCEA2007.pdf (accessed June 14, 2010);
89. and Osipian, "Corrupt Organizational Hierarchies in the Former Soviet Bloc," Transition Studies Review 17, no.3 (2010): DOI 10.1007/s11300-010-0174-y.