Vladimir Shlapentokh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vladimir Shlapentokh
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| Владимир Эммануилович Шляпентох | |
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| Born |
Vladimir Emmanuilovich Shlapentokh
19 October 1926 |
| Died | 6 October 2015 (aged 88) East Lansing, Michigan, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Institute of World Economy and International Affairs, 1966 Moscow State University of Economics, Statistics, and Informatics, Ph.D. 1956 Economic Statistical Institute, B.A. 1950 Kyiv State University, B.A. 1949 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | sociology, political science |
| Institutions | Michigan State University Senior Fellow, the Institute of Sociology, Moscow |
Vladimir Emmanuilovich Shlapentokh (Russian: Влади́мир Эммануи́лович Шляпенто́х; 19 October 1926 – 6 October 2015) was an important expert on society and politics. He was a sociologist, historian, and political scientist. He taught at universities in both the Soviet Union and the United States.
He was a professor of sociology at Michigan State University (MSU). Many people saw him as a "founding father" of sociology in the Soviet Union.
Contents
About Vladimir Shlapentokh
Vladimir Shlapentokh was born and grew up in Kyiv, which was part of the Soviet Union at the time. He was one of the first people to do national surveys of public opinion in the Soviet Union. He worked as a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Sociology in Moscow.
Before he moved to the United States in 1979, he had already written ten books. He also wrote many articles about how to do sociological studies and about different social issues. After moving to the U.S., he published over 30 more books and many articles. His writings appeared in major newspapers like the New York Times.
From 1982, Vladimir Shlapentokh advised the United States government. He regularly reported on social changes and public opinion in countries that used to be communist, like Russia. He was very good with languages, speaking English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and other Slavic languages.
His Early Work
Vladimir Shlapentokh started his career as a sociologist in the Soviet Union. He helped create a new field of study that had been banned there until the 1960s. In the 1960s and 1970s, he was a top expert on how to do sociological studies. He wrote some of the first Soviet books on how to choose groups for surveys (sampling) and how to conduct surveys. These books were used as textbooks for many Russian social scientists. His popular book, Sociology for All (1970), was a bestseller. It encouraged many young people to study sociology.
The Segmented Approach to Society
One of Vladimir Shlapentokh's most important ideas was his "segmented approach" to studying society. This idea suggests that you cannot explain a society using just one simple model. Instead, he believed that most societies are made up of many different parts, or "segments." These segments include various social structures that have existed for a long time.
He argued that societies are a mix of different universal social structures. Some of these structures are feudal (like in medieval times), authoritarian (where one leader or group has all the power), and liberal (where people have more freedom). Other structures can be religious, criminal, or anarchistic (without rules). Shlapentokh used the word "combinatorics" to explain how these few types of social organizations can create so much diversity in human societies over time.
He used his segmented approach to study the Soviet Union, Russia after the Soviet Union, and the United States. For example, he looked at how private life and friendships were important in the Soviet Union. He showed how friendship helped people in their daily lives because it created a strong social network.
In his work on Russia after the Soviet Union, he described three main parts: liberal, authoritarian, and feudal. He showed how these different parts worked together. He also explained that even in an authoritarian society like Russia under Putin, the existence of private property makes it hard for the country to become fully totalitarian. He also applied his ideas to American society. He looked at how corporations and the government interact, how money affects elections, and how personal relationships influence politics.
Understanding Totalitarian Societies
Vladimir Shlapentokh spent a lot of time studying what makes a totalitarian society. In his book, A Normal Totalitarian Society (2001), he shared his ideas about how the Soviet Union developed and ended. He disagreed with other experts who saw the Soviet system as either just a harsh regime or a society with lots of public involvement.
Instead, Shlapentokh saw the Soviet Union as a very effective "normal" totalitarian society. The state was the most important part, and the Communist party helped control everything. The party was good at organizing activities across the country and quickly gathering resources for military goals. He believed the Soviet Union could have kept going for many more years if its leader, Gorbachev, had not started his reforms.
Shlapentokh also wrote about the role of fear in society. While he disliked the "Orwellian fear" (like in the book 1984) found in totalitarian societies, he also thought that a certain amount of "Hobbesian fear" (fear of breaking rules) is useful. He believed this kind of fear helps keep order even in democratic countries like the United States. He argued that simply teaching people good values is not enough to maintain order. Without the fear of consequences, people might break laws more often.
The Role of Leaders
Shlapentokh believed that leaders, especially political ones, play a big role in creating and changing a society's main ideas, or "ideology." He thought that ruling leaders use their control over media, education, and culture to spread their values and rules to everyone. They can also use force to make people follow.
While he thought ordinary people were less active in creating these ideas, he knew their cultural traditions and beliefs were important. Leaders often use these existing feelings to shape new ideas. For example, Russian Bolsheviks used people's anger about inequality. Later, leaders like Stalin and Putin used people's fear of outsiders. Shlapentokh believed that understanding the difference between leaders and ordinary people is key to understanding any society. He argued that many problems in Russia after the Soviet Union were caused by new leaders. These leaders gained wealth and power and then supported an authoritarian system to protect what they had gained.
He also studied why some people in Russia and other countries disliked America. Shlapentokh said that it was usually the leaders, not ordinary people, who started these anti-American feelings. He believed that ordinary people's opinions were often shaped by the media, which the leaders controlled.
Studying Society with Surveys
Shlapentokh was in charge of the first national surveys in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s. These were the first scientific surveys of their kind in Soviet history. The results were published in many Russian books and also translated into English. He used his experience in surveys for many studies, including an international project about how the world viewed America after September 11.
Because he studied totalitarian societies, Shlapentokh focused a lot on whether survey data was truly accurate. He realized that people in any society, especially in authoritarian ones, might not always tell the truth. They might answer questions in a way they think is "desirable" or expected by the dominant ideas of their society.
Shlapentokh and his colleagues believed that American sociologists sometimes underestimated this problem. He developed theories on this issue in his books. He was also one of the first to use different methods to compare data from various sources. This helped him find the most reliable information in surveys and polls.
Places He Worked
- Professor, Michigan State University
- Senior Fellow, the Institute of Sociology, Moscow (until 1979)
