in the democratic process and to lobby for what they believe in (Grudzinska-Gross 187). The diverse and active religious groups in America have served as bastion of strength for democracy while the Orthodox Church of Russia has functioned more as a servant of autocracy. However, it should be noted that the Church's influence has declined. Seventy years of Communism severely damaged its position as did the Church's lack of opposition to serfdom, the despotism of the tsars, and the Communists. Still, it has undoubtedly had a strong influence. In order to sustain and grow as a democracy, Russian citizens must acquire a new sense of government. They must respect their leaders, value their constitutions and aspire to be prosperous. The United States does not respect all of their leaders, does not value all of their important documents and does not have universal motivation to prosper, but America does have a strong combination of the three. United States citizens have achieved this state of mind through the geography, history and traditions of the nation. Russia, although having geography, history and traditional values standing against it, has made a significant effort to preserve strong features of democracy through recent decades. Bibliography Grudzinska-Gross, Irena. The Scar of Revolution: Custine, Tocqueville, and the Romantic Imagination. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991. Gustafson, Thane, and Daniel Yergin. Russia 2010. New York: Random, 1993. Heywood, Andrew. Political Ideas and Concepts. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994. McDaniel, Tim. The Agony of the Russian Idea. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996. Melvin, Neil. Russians Beyond Russians. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1995. Rzhevsky, Nicholas. Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Word Count: 2153 ...
