The book serves as a valuable reminder of how the study of Russian politics can benefit from and contribute to cumulative knowledge, and it should be a worthwhile addition to seminars on the conduct of inquiry and comparative politics.

Slavic Review

Nobody has done more over the years than Frederic J. Fleron Jr. to close the methodological gap between information-rich Soviet/Russian Studies and the theory-driven field of comparative politics, and to facilitate learned communication between the study of the Soviet Union and Russia and the mainstream discipline of political science. Many of his key contributions to the discussion are revisited in this latest volume along with new chapters reframing the issues in terms of progress made and the distance yet to be traveled. In this study, Fleron has successfully provided a well-crafted portal into the possibilities and opportunities for the application of middle-range theory in the field of Russian studies. This fine book closes with a tour-de-force conclusion which is at once sophisticated, insightful, historically grounded, and clearly expressed.

Robert Sharlet, Union College

Frederic J. Fleron Jr. has long been at the forefront of efforts to foster methodological rigor in Soviet and post-Soviet studies and to integrate work in this area more fully into the mainstream of the discipline of comparative politics. This book marks a suitable capstone for these missions. It will be of interest to area specialists and comparativists alike.

Munroe Eagles, State University of New York at Buffalo