Pre-modern state-building in post-Soviet Russia

Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics

Volumn 24, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 531-572

  Cappelli, Ottorino ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 57449084667     PISSN: 13523279     EISSN: 17439116     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13523270802510487     Document Type: Conference Paper

References (122)

1. Theda Skocpol, 'Bringing The State Back In: Strategies of Analysis in Current Research', in Peter B. Evans, Dietrich Rueschemeyer and Theda Skocpol (eds), Bringing The State Back In (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), pp.3-36 (p.8).
2. See Samuel P. Huntington 'The Democratic Distemper', The Public Interest, No.41 (1975), pp.9-38. I have argued that 'democratic distemper' played a crucial role in the failure of the Soviet transition to democracy: See my Demokratizatsiya: La transizione fallita (Napoli: Guida, 2004).
3. By 'transitology' I refer here less to scholarly research than to a 'public discourse' that became prevalent in the early 1990s in the media and among analysts working for think-tanks, financial institutions, consulting firms, private foundations, non-governmental organizations, and various democracy-promotion agencies. It is these people who have set the tone and language of transitology in the past two decades.
4. J.V. Stalin, 'Dizzy With Success', Pravda, 2 March 1930, in J.V. Stalin, Works, Vol.12 (Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1955), p.198.
5. Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: W.W. Norton, 2002), p.167.
6. Guillermo O'Donnell, 'Illusions about Consolidation', Journal of Democracy, Vol.7, No.2 (1996), pp.34-51 (p.47).
7. David Collier and Steven Levitsky, 'Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research', World Politics, Vol.49, No.3 (1997), pp.430-51 (p.445).
8. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, The Federalist Papers No. 51 (New York: The Modern Library edition, 1948), p.337
9. Valerie Bunce, 'Comparative Democratization. Big and Bounded Generalizations', Comparative Political Studies, Vol.33, Nos.6/7 (2000), pp.703-34 (p.714).
10. Vladimir Shlapentokh, 'Hobbes and Locke at Odds in Putin's Russia', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.55, No.7 (2003), pp.981-1007 (p.981).
11. Francis Fukuyama, State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century (Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univeristy Press, 2004), p.15.
12. On Gorbachev's 'destructive' role in the collapse of the USSR see Rita di Leo, 'Rex destruens': An Interpretative Essay', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.11, No.2 (1995), pp.111-24.
13. Juan J. Linz and Alferd Stepan, 'Toward Consolidated Democracies', Journal of Democracy, Vol.7, No.2 (April 1996), pp.14-33 (p.21).
14. Ibid., p.14.
15. Ibid.
16. For further elaboration on these points see Juan J. Linz and Alferd Stepan, Problems of Democratic Transition and Consolidation (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) esp. Ch.2.
17. Karen Barkey and Sunita Parikh, 'Comparative Perspectives on the State', International Review of Sociology, Vol.17, No.2 (1991), pp.523-49 (p.525).
18. For a typical example see World Bank, The State in a Changing World (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1997).
19. Fukuyama, State-Building, p.6.
20. Ibid., p.19.
21. From an article by John Lloyd in the Financial Times, 5 Aug. 2000, p.1, cited in Daniel Kaufmann, 'Click Refresh Button: Investment Climate Reconsidered', Development Outreach, The World Bank Institute (March 2005), p.16.
22. The first part of the quotation is from Joel Hellman and Daniel Kaufmann, 'Confronting the Challenge of State Capture in Transition Economies', Finance & Development (a quarterly magazine of the IMF), Vol.38, No.3 (2001), pp.1-9 (p.2);
23. the second part is from Joel S. Hellmann, Geraint Jones and Daniel Kaufmann, 'Seize the State, Seize the Day: State Capture, Corruption and Influence in Transition', World Bank Policy Research, Working Paper No.2444 (September 2000), pp.1-41 (p.1).
24. Ivan Krastev (ed.), The Inflexibility Trap: Frustrated Societies, Weak States and Democracy (Sofia: Centre for Liberal Strategies and Institute for Market Economics, 2003), p.24.
25. O'Donnell, 'Illusions About Consolidation', pp.34, 40.
26. Ibid., p.39.
27. Ibid., p.44.
28. Ibid., p.45.
29. Thomas Carothers, 'The End of the Transition Paradigm', Journal of Democracy, Vol.13, No.1 (2002), pp.5-21 (p.18).
30. Ibid., p.10.
31. Ibid., p.12.
32. The term 'tag cloud' is derived from research on the 'semantic web' and is popular in theories of the so-called Web 2.0. A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword assigned to a piece of information; a tag cloud is a visual display that conveys in the form of tags the broad themes that emerge from textual analysis. The size of the font indicates the relevance of the tag (generally in terms of frequency of use) and in some cases the shape of the cloud may reflect the polarity of the information analysed, with related tags forming clusters in a semantic space. The 'grey zone tag cloud' proposed here is based on the literature cited in the footnotes. It was constructed manually without the help of a text-analysis software and its sole purpose is to offer a graphic display of my subject's semantic space.
33. Sheri Berman, 'How Democracies Emerge: Lessons from Europe', Journal of Democracy, Vol.18, No.1 (2007), pp.28-41 (pp.30-31).
34. See Paul Pierson, Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004). For a review that opposes 'short-termers' to 'long-termers' in the field of comparative studies of democratization, see Bunce, 'Comparative Democratization'.
35. Charles Tilly, 'War Making and State Making as Organized Crime', in Evans, Rueschemeyer and Skocpol (eds), Bringing The State Back In, pp.169-91 (p.169).
36. See the debate on 'sequencing' published in the Journal of Democracy, Vol.18, No.1 (2007) and No.3 (July 2007). The first volume includes Thomas Carothers, "The Sequencing" Fallacy' (pp.12-27), and Sheri Berman, 'Lessons from Europe' (pp.28-41). The second volume contains: Edward D. Mansfield and Jack Snyder, 'The Sequencing "Fallacy" (pp-5-9);
37. Francis Fukuyama, 'Liberalism versus State-Building' (pp.1-13); Sheri Berman, 'The Vain Hope for "Correct" Timing' (pp.14-17); Thomas Carothers, 'Misunderstanding Gradualism' (pp.18-22).
38. Richard Rose and Doh Chull Shin, 'Democratization Backwards: The Problem of Third Wave Democracies', British Journal of Political Science, Vol.31, No.2 (2001), pp.331-54. (p.337);
39. reference is to Samuel P. Huntington, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991).
40. Ibid., pp.343, 333.
41. Jerry F. Hough, Democratization and Revolution in the USSR, 1985-1991 (Washington, DC: Brookings, 1997), p.141.
42. See for instance Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003).
43. Vladimir Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia as a Feudal Society (New York: Palgrave- Macmillan, 2007), pp.19, 22; by the same author,
44. see also 'Early Feudalism: The Best Parallel for Contemporary Russia', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.48, No.3 (1996), pp.393-411;
45. 'Hobbes and Locke at Odds in Putin's Russia', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.55, No.7 (2003), pp.981-1007. A critical review of Shlapentokh's early writings on the subject is in Roger D. Markwick, 'What Kind of State is the Russian State - If There is One?', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.15, No.4 (1999), pp.111-30. Although Shlapentokh's is the only systematic work on the subject, references to 'feudalism' in the analysis of contemporary Russia, especially under Yeltsin, are several;
46. see for instance Richard E. Ericson, 'The Post-Soviet Russian Economic System: An Industrial Feudalism?', BOFIT Online, No.8 (2000), pp.4-25, www.bof.fi/NR/rdonlyres/2E8B0D1E-03BB-47FD-B69F-8FC52332028E/0/ bon0800.pdf. accessed 21 Sept. 2008; and most recently Oxana Gaman-Golutvina, 'Changes in Elite Patterns', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.60, No.6 (2008), pp.1033-50.
47. Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia, p.153. The quotation refers to Mikhail Afanas'ev, 'Nevynosimaya slabost' gosudarstva', Otechestvennye zapiski, No.2 (2004), p.4.
48. Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia, p.27.
49. Shlapentokh, 'Hobbes and Locke', p.989. Extensive treatment of the 'oligarchs phenomenon' under Yeltsin can be found in David E. Hoffman, The Oligarchs: Wealth and Power in the New Russia (Oxford: Public Affairs, 2002);
50. Peter Reddaway and Dimitri Glinski, The Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace, 2001);
51. Stephen Fortescue, Russia's Oil Barons and Metal Magnates: Oligarchs and State in Transition (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2006).
52. Reported in Virginie Coulloudon, 'Vladimir Putin's Vertical State and the Embryo of a Horizontal Opposition', Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, Vol.8, No.4 (2000), pp.421-38 (p.431).
53. Stephen White, 'Rethinking Postcommunist Transition', Government and Opposition, Vol.38, No.4 (2003), pp.417-35 (p.424);
54. see also David Lane, 'What Kind of Capitalism for Russia? A Comparative Analysis', Communist and Post-communist Studies, Vol.33, No.4 (2000), pp.485-504.
55. See on this subject the contribution by Rita di Leo to this volume.
56. See the seminal study by William Taubman, Governing Soviet Cities (New York: Praeger, 1973).
57. On the informal workings of Soviet factories see Joseph Berliner, Factory and Manager in the USSR (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1957);
58. David Granick, The Red Executive: A Study of the Organization Man in Russian Industry (New York and London: Macmillan, 1960);
59. Rita di Leo, Operai e fabbrica in Unione Sovietica (Bari: De Donato, 1973).
60. Shlapentokh, 'Hobbes and Locke', p.988.
61. Ibid., p.986.
62. Ibid., p.988.
63. Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia, p.96;
64. see also Vladimir Shlapentokh, 'The Soviet Union: A Normal Totalitarian Society', Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol.15, No.4 (1999), pp.1-16.
65. I have documented the persistent dissatisfaction of the Soviet central authorities with the state of centre-periphery relations, from Lenin to Gorbachev, in my 'Changing Leadership Perspectives on Centre-Periphery Relations', in David Lane (ed.), Elites and Political Power in the USSR (Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1991), p.238-53.
66. For this interpretation of the Stalin period see J. Arch Getty, Origins of the Great Purges: The Soviet Communist Party Reconsidered, 1933-1938 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985).
67. See Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reorganization and the Party's Personnel Policy: The Report and Concluding Speech by the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee at the Plenary Meeting of the CPSU Central Committee, January 27-28, 1987 (Moscow: Novosti, 1987).
68. John Dunlop, 'Sifting Through the Rubble of the Yeltsin Years', Jamestown Foundation Policy Papers (1999), as quoted in Lucan A. Way 'Pluralism by Default and the Sources of Political Liberalization in Weak States', paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, 28-31 Aug. 2003, p.24.
69. On centre-periphery relations under Yeltsin see Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, Local Heroes: The Political Economy of Russian Regional Governance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997);
70. Cameron Ross (ed.), Regional Politics in Russia (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002);
71. Andrew Konitzer, Voting for Russia's Governors: Regional Elections and Accountability under Yeltsin and Putin (Baltimore, MD, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005).
72. Shlapentokh, 'Hobbes and Locke', p.987.
73. Ibid., p.989.
74. Ibid., p.992.
75. See for instance Putin's famous 'millennium manifesto': Vladimir Putin, 'Rossiya na rubezhe tysyacheletii', Nezavisimaya gazeta, 30 Dec. 1999.
76. Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia's Choice (New York: Routledge, 2004), p.96.
77. In August 2008 the Ingodinsky Court of Chita overruled the appeal for conditional release lodged by Mikhail Khodorkovskii's lawyers, according to an article in Kommersant, 22 Aug. 2008: http://www.kommersant.com/p-13127/Khodorkovsky_release., accessed 21 Sept. 2008.
78. Olga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, 'Putin's Militocracy', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.19, No.4 (2003), pp.289-306 (p.300).
79. There are many accounts of these developments; the most recent and updated is Richard Sakwa, Russian Politics and Society (New York: Routledge, 2008).
80. Several studies about the siloviki have appeared in the Putin years; see Kryshtanovskaya and White, 'Putin's Militocracy', pp.289-306;
81. Olga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, 'Inside the Putin Court: A Research Note', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.57, No.7 (2005), pp.1065-75;
82. Pavel K. Baev, 'The Evolution of Putin's Regime: Inner Circles and Outer Walls', Problems of Post-Communism, Vol.51, No.6 (2004), pp.3-13;
83. Sharon Werning Rivera and David W. Rivera, 'The Russian Elite Under Putin: Militocracy or Bourgeois?', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.22, No.2 (2006), pp.125-44;
84. Ian Bremmer and Samuel Charap, 'The Siloviki in Putin's Russia: Who They Are and What They Want', The Washington Quarterly, Vol.30, No.1 (Winter 2006-2007), pp.83-92.
85. Kryshtanovskaya and White, 'Putin's Militocracy', p.303.
86. See Thomas F. Remington, 'Presidential Support in the Russian State Duma', Legislative Studies Quarterly, Vol.31, No.1 (2006), pp.5-32.
87. Olga Kryshtanovskaya and Stephen White, 'The Rise of the Russian Business Elites', Communist and Post-Communist Studies, Vol.38, No.3 (2005), pp.293-307 (p.306).
88. Shlapentokh, Contemporary Russia, p.120.
89. See Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, 'Resistance to the Central State on the Periphery', in Timothy J. Colton and Stephen Holmes (eds), The State After Communism: Governance in the New Russia (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) pp.87-120.
90. Robert W. Orttung, 'Business and Politics in the Russian Regions', Problems of Post- Communism, Vol.51, No.2 (2004), pp.48-60 (p.57);
91. S. Andrew Barnes, 'Russia's New Business Groups and State Power', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.19, No.2 (2003), pp.154-86.
92. Orttung, 'Business and Politics', pp.54-6.
93. Ibid., pp.51, 59.
94. Kryshtanovskaya and White, 'Putin's Militocracy', p.302.
95. See Gerald M. Easter, 'The Russian State in the Time of Putin', Post-Soviet Affairs, Vol.24, No.3 (2008), pp.199-230 (p.210).
96. Perry Anderson, 'Russia's Managed Democracy', London Review of Books 25 Jan. 2007, at http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n02/ande01_.html., accessed 21 Sept. 2008.
97. Easter, 'The Russian State', p.210.
98. Thomas Remington, 'Patronage and the Party of Power: President-Parliament Relations Under Vladimir Putin', Europe-Asia Studies, Vol.60, No.6 (2008), pp.959-87 (p.960).
99. Ibid., pp.959-60.
100. Sakwa, Putin: Russia's Choice, p.96.
101. Tilly, 'War Making and State Making as Organized Crime', pp.175, 171.
102. Vladimir Gel'man, 'From "Feckless Pluralism" to "Dominant Power Politics"? The Transformation of Russia's Party System', Democratization, Vol.13, No.4 (2006), pp.545-61.
103. Tilly, 'War Making and State Making as Organized Crime', p.175.
104. Ibid., p.169.
105. For a review of the 'revisionist literature' see William Beik, 'The Absolutism of Louis XIV as Social Collaboration', Past and Present No.188 (Aug. 2005), pp.196-224.
106. Charles Tilly, Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p.19.
107. Herbert H. Rowen, The King's State: Proprietary Dynasticism in Early Modern France (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1980).
108. See the classic study by Roland Mousnier, The Institutions of France Under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598-1789. Vol.II The Origins of State and Society (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984).
109. William Beik, Absolutism and Society in Seventeenth-century France (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp.13-14.
110. Nicholas Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism: Change and Continuity in Early Modern European Monarchy (London: Longman, 1992), p.20; see also J.H. Shennan, Liberty and Order in Early Modern Europe (London: Longman, 1986), p.23.
111. See Giorgio Chiottolini, 'The Private, "the "Public," the State', Journal of Modern History, Vol.67 (1995), supplement, pp.34-61.
112. Stoner-Weiss, 'Resistance to the Central State on the Periphery', p.107.
113. Andrew Lossky, 'The Absolutism of Louis XIV: Reality or Myth?', Canadian Journal of History, Vol.19, No.1 (1984), pp.1-15 (p.9); see more extensively Andrew Lossky, Louis XIV and the French Monarchy (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press), 1994.
114. Lossky, 'The Absolutism of Louis XIV', p.14.
115. Ibid.
116. Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism, p.44.
117. Sharon Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients in Seventeenth-Century France (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1986), p.141. For an extensive discussion of the applicability of clientelism as a social science concept across a wide historical spectrum
118. see Sharon Ketering, 'The Historical Development of Political Clientelism', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol.18, No.3 (1988), pp.419-47.
119. Henshall, The Myth of Absolutism, p.40;
120. on patronage and power in Versailles see also the classic work by Norbert Elias, The Court Society (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983).
121. Kettering, Patrons, Brokers, and Clients, p.224.
122. Ibid., p.192.