How to explain Russia's post-Soviet political and economic system

Abstract

"The analyses presented in this working paper provide a genuinely interdisciplinary view on Russia's society since the end of socialism. A historian, Hans-Henning Schröder, describes the political sphere, a political scientist, Diana Schmidt, covers civil society, a sociologist and a geographer, David Lane and Denis Eckert, deal with the economic sphere. They all develop a comparative dimension to put the Russian case in context. As the panel title suggests, all papers are concerned with general trends characterising the post-Soviet development of Russia. In order to describe these trends, the authors refer to analytical frameworks of reference provided by their specific discipline and research orientation. Nevertheless, as Valerie Bunce points out in her comment, a number of conclusions on the state of Russian society is supported by all four papers. The most important one seems to be that Russia is marked by a high degree of inequality, fragmentation and political alienation; this in turn questions the stability of the political, economic and social system which has emerged in Russia. However, the main aim of all papers is not to depress the reader or to criticize developments, but to understand what is going on. Here, the authors provide an original, rich and broad overview of ways to analyse and interpret current trends. They present many interesting insights and data and integrate them into a general line of argument which offers a rather comprehensive answer to the question of how to explain Russia's Post-Soviet Political and Economic System." (excerpt). Contents: Hans-Henning Schröder: What kind of political regime does Russia have? (6-22); Diana Schmidt: What kind of civil society does Russia have? (23-45); David Lane: Russia's asymmetric capitalism in comparative perspective (46-60); Denis Eckert: Russia 15 years later: contemporary paradoxes in the organization of economic space (61-67); Valerie Bunce: Commentary on the papers (68-71).