Russian Politics: Challenges of Democratization

by Edited by Zoltan Barany , Robert G. Moser

• ISBN13: 9780521805124
• ISBN10: 0521805120
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-08-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

What went wrong in Russia's decade-old post-communist transition? A group of leading young scholars answer this question by offering assessments of five crucial political arenas during the Yeltsin era: elections, executive-legislative relations, interactions between the central state and the regions, economic reforms, and civil-military relations. All of the contributors recognize that adverse historical legacies have complicated Russian democratization. They challenge structural explanations that emphasize constraints of the pre-existing system, however, and concentrate instead on the importance of elite decisions and institution-building. The authors agree that elites' failure to develop robust political institutions has been a central problem of Russia's post-communist transition. The weakness of the state and its institutions has contributed to a number of serious problems threatening democratic consolidation. These include the tensions between the executive and the legislature, the frail infrastructure for successful market reform, and the absence of proper civilian control over the armed forces.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
List of Contributors	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
Introduction: Challenges of Russian Democratization	1	(18)
Robert G. Moser
Russian Electoral Trends	19	(45)
Michael McFaul
Executive-Legislative Relations in Russia, 1991-1999	64	(39)
Robert G. Moser
The Russian Central State in Crisis: Center and Periphery in the Post-Soviet Era	103	(32)
Kathryn Stoner-Weiss
Russian Economic Reform, 1991-1999	135	(40)
Yoshiko M. Herrera
Politics and the Russian Armed Forces	175	(78)
Zoltan Barany
Conclusion: Democracy and Russian Politics	215	(38)
M. Steven Fish
Index	253