Description

The Soviet dictatorship was a strong state, committed to dominating and transforming society in the name of a utopian ideology. When the communist regime crumbled and the post-Soviet countries committed to democracy, most observers took for granted that their state structures would be effective agents of the popular will. Russia's experience demonstrates that this assumption was overly optimistic. This book, based on a major collaborative research project with American and Russian scholars, shows that state capacity, strength, and coherence were highly problematic after communism, which had major consequences for particular functions of government and for the entire process of regime change. Eleven respected contributors examine governance in post-Soviet Russia in comparative context, investigating the roots, characteristics, and consequences of the crisis as a whole and its manifestations in the specific realms of tax collection, statistics, federalism, social policy, regulation of the banks, currency exchange, energy policy, and parliamentary oversight of the bureaucracy.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Governance and Postcommunist Politics
Chapter 2 Building Fiscal Capacity
Chapter 3 The Transformation of State Statistics
Chapter 4 Resistance to the Central State in the Periphery
Chapter 5 State Capacity and Pension Provision
Chapter 6 Governing the Banking Sector
Chapter 7 Evaluating Exchange Rate Management
Chapter 8 The Paradox of Energy Sector Reform
Chapter 9 Democratization, Separation of Powers, and State Capacity
Chapter 10 Conclusion: The State of the State in Putin's Russia

Product details

Published Aug 11 2006
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 334
ISBN 9780742539426
Imprint Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Dimensions 229 x 153 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Related Titles

Environment: Staging