What roles have institutions, ideas and leadership played in shaping Russia's post-Soviet transformation? This volume brings together eight specially commissioned essays by leading scholars to explore the interactions between these three critical factors in shaping Russia's development from Mikhail Gorbachev to Vladimir Putin. The contributors explore such diverse areas as party formation, the emergence of representative institutions, the governance of Russian regions, the rule of law, nationalities policy and foreign relations, reaching some surprising conclusions. While some scholars have questioned the degree to which Russia's polity was institutionalised at all, and others have written of its 'de-institutionalisation' under Vladimir Putin, the authors gathered here present a much more complex and variegated picture of Russia's recent institutional development. They also return attention to the role of ideas, often overlooked in debates about the relative importance of institutions and leadership. The result is a stimulating and thought-provoking collection that challenges some of the emerging conventional wisdom about contemporary Russia
Includes bibliographical references and index
"This book addresses the question: how, and to what degree, are political institutions important in explaining the state of post-Communist political systems today? More specifically, it analyses the nature of political leadership and explains how, and under what circumstances, ideas and identity have influenced post-Soviet political change"-- Provided by publisher
Explaining political and economic change in post-Soviet Russia / Julie Newton -- Presidents and parties : leadership and institution-building in post-communist Russia / Thomas F. Remington -- Russia's gubernatorial elections : a postmortem / J. Paul Goode -- Back to the future? : Thoughts on the political economy of expanding state ownership in Russia / William Tompson -- Shortcut to great power : Russia in pursuit of multipolarity / Julie Newton -- The presence of absence : ethnicity policy in Russia / Peter Rutland -- Political parties under Putin : party-system development and democracy / Kenneth Wilson -- The rule-of-law factor / Jeffrey Kahn -- Ukraine : improbable democratic nation-state, but possible democratic state-nation? / Alfred Stepan -- Explaining European Union aid to Russia / Tomila Lankina
