Twenty years after the collapse of the USSR, the trajectories of the states that emerged from the Soviet collapse are subject to interesting developments. The challenge that they present in political science is twofold. On the one hand it lays in their uniqueness / diversity. On the other hand the challenge arises from confronting the theoretical work carried out on post-authoritarian "transitions" (Linz, Stepan), and on democratic transitions, with empirical research.

This project began in 2005 and has resulted in two symposia at the ULB (“Comment qualifier le régime politique de la Russie aujourd'hui?” [How can we qualify the political system of Russia today?] in May 2006 and “S'opposer politiquement en Russie aujourd'hui : diversité des formes et des pratiques” [Political opposition in Russia today: diversity of forms and practices] in March 2010) and to the organization of panels at various conferences. The project maintains the broad framework of post-Soviet transformations as a basis to develop hypotheses concerning the causal factors of the “off track” transitions in the post-Soviet space. Besides, research and analysis are carried out through a comprehensive approach that focuses on the actors, along the lines of a Weberian model. Actors’ strategies, issues at stake in mobilization and repertoires of contention are therefore extensively explored.

One axis of this project focuses on mobilizations of various natures (politics, identity, religion), in particular in the North Caucasus, which has recently been affected by two post-Soviet Chechen conflicts and persistent transversal violence.

A second axis is concerned with the analysis of political parties in Russia, in particular through the study of the party system in the Tomsk region (PhD Lou Brenez).

Finally, through a more "macro" approach, a comparative analysis is conducted through seminars in political sociology on various post-Soviet states. In this context, researchers from post-Soviet states are invited to present their work.