Putin again picked a party-state model to pieces. Making the Communist Party a backbone of state was a ticking bomb, which led to USSR collapse, he says. I wonder what Xi Jinping would say on this. Empowering the Communist Party role has been a main pillar of Xi Jinping thought.

“The Communist party tyed its interests to the interests of state. When the Party began crumbling, the state followed.”I don’t really agree. Indeed, the 1980s became a hardtime for CPSU, yet it was relinquishing Party’s monopoly on power that became USSR’s point of no-return, IMO

The party within a party-state model is an institutional skeleton for the state. Thanks to that, USSR, with all its problems, managed to survive for 70 years. Yet, I doubt that “Putin’s model” that mainly rests upon personal authority, remains after the architect is gone.

Interestingly, according to data brought up by B. Geddes, it is power-personalisation that shortens up the life of party-state, not vice versa. A party-state makes an authoritarian model more resilient. China, Vietnam and, I would dare to say, Cuba are good examples.