The Economic Ideology of the "Special Path": The Reason for the Diversity of Interpretations

Political ideologies, shaped and disseminated by political parties and individual politicians to secure public support, typically include an economic component. This component is intended to characterize the future economic state that the respective party will strive to achieve. One variant of this component is a focus on a specific development path, which has been and continues to be present in a number of countries, including Russia. The analysis reveals significant diversity in the economic characteristics that different politicians and intellectuals associate with this orientation, distinguishing it from the economic blocs of other political ideologies. The article's objectives are to formulate and analyze the validity of the hypothesis that the phenomenon of the economic ideology of a special path is, in fact, a variant of populist politics. The analysis reveals significant diversity in the economic characteristics that different politicians and intellectuals associate with this orientation, distinguishing it from the economic blocs of other political ideologies. The article's objectives are to formulate and analyze the validity of the hypothesis that the phenomenon of the economic ideology of a special path is, in fact, a variant of populist politics. The latter, as is well known, consists of politicians seeking support from those citizens they seek to attract. Since citizens typically have a wide range of ideas about what kind of economic structure would be favorable to them, politicians avoid formulating specific statements about the economic components of their ideologies. The results of our study of Russian feature materials do not contradict this hypothesis.