Does an Elite Exist in Belarus? Two Minsk Scholars Have Doubts

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan 19 – Observers and analysts are so used to employing the word “elite” to describe that group of people at the top of official hierarchies that they do not notice that that such usage of the term in Belarus is either not appropriate at all or appropriate only to a limited degree, Maksim Zhbankov and Tatyana Vodolazhskaya say.

            Cultural critic Zhbankov takes the more radical position. He says that for an elite to exist, there must be a group of people who are highly qualified professionally and also are in a position to influence policy outcomes. In Belarus, there aren’t any such people; and consequently, there is no elite there (thinktanks.by/publication/2022/01/19/suschestvuet-li-v-belarusi-elita.html).

            Sociologist Vodolazhskaya views the situation differently. She argues that one must both designate positions which themselves have influence on policy and the people who occupy those positions. Together, these can be described as “an elite” but she says that “she also does not like this word.”

            The problem in Belarus, indeed its “main problem” going forward, is that there is a lack of correspondence between positions that by definition have influence on policy and the people who occupy those positions who in most cases are not qualified for them and thus do not represent a real elite.

            Bringing these two things together and ensuring the talented and professional people are in the right places is a major task for the opposition. If it succeeds, Belarus will acquire an elite and have a better future; if it doesn’t, Belarus will remain as Zhbankov suggests, a country without an elite and thus without the kind of future an elite can help provide.