Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 240
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-1-4422-1074-5 • Hardback • July 2012 • $143.00 • (£110.00)
978-1-4422-1075-2 • Paperback • July 2012 • $52.00 • (£40.00)
978-1-4422-1076-9 • eBook • July 2012 • $49.00 • (£38.00)
Neil Robinson is senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Chapter 1: Introduction: The Political Problems of Russian Capitalism
Neil Robinson
Chapter 2: The Contexts of Russia’s Political Economy: Soviet Legacies and Post-Soviet Policies
Neil Robinson
Chapter 3: Revenue Imperatives: State over Market in Postcommunist Russia
Gerald M. Easter
Chapter 4: Systemic Stalemate: Reiderstvo and the Dual State
Richard Sakwa
Chapter 5: The Political Economy of Russia’s Demographic Crisis: States and Markets, Mothers and Migrants
Linda J. Cook
Chapter 6: Change in Agriculture: The Development of Russia’s Private Farming
Stephen K. Wegren
Chapter 7: Russia’s Potential Role in the World Oil System: Reciprocal Dependency, Global Integration, and Positive Unintended Consequences
Andrew Barnes
Chapter 8: Russia as Semiperiphery: Political Economy, the State, and Society in the Contemporary World System
Paul T. Christensen
Chapter 9: Conclusion: The Political Dysfunctions of Russian Capitalism
Neil Robinson
Neil Robinson has assembled an impressive group of specialists to explore the many challenges facing Russia as it searches for a sustainable development strategy.
— Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University
The Political Economy of Russia offers excellent analyses of the relationships between the state, the economy, and society in the post-Soviet Russian Federation. It is a significant contribution not only to the study of Russia but to the comparativist debates on the varieties of capitalism. The book includes studies of taxation, property rights, demography, and agriculture. It shows that, far from being an 'energy superpower,' Russia belongs to the semiperiphery of the world system and that the state under Putin and Medvedev continues to play a predatory rather than a developmental role.
— Peter J. S. Duncan, University College London
This volume examines the link between the development of Russia's economic and political regimes, focusing on how the link has been influenced not only by Soviet legacies but also by the realities of energy, agricultural, and demographic conditions. This work introduced this reviewer to the concept of Russia's "political capitalist" system, a concept that will add new dimensions to class discussions. While edited volumes often suffer from uneven coverage or quality, editor Robinson (Univ. of Limerick, Ireland) avoids this problem, providing an excellent overview in the introduction, followed by a chapter that puts Russia's political economy in context. Chapter 3 ("Revenue Imperatives") starts from the premise that power inevitably finds wealth, and explains how Russia's pattern of revenue extraction influenced state-society relations. Chapter 4 ("Systemic Stalemate") expands this idea, using corporate case studies (Yukos, Toaz) to explore the tensions between developmental and predatory aspects of state intervention. Chapter 5 explores the political economy of Russia's demographic crisis, examining both state policy and societal attitudes toward immigrants and pronatalism. Chapters 6 and 7 focus on problems that agriculture and oil present to Russia's political economy. Final chapters place Russia's economy in global perspective and describe the political dysfunctions of Russian capitalism. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.
— Choice Reviews
Traces the development of the economy from the Soviet era to the present
Puts the development of Russia’s political economy in historical, comparative, and international perspective
Chapters by leading scholars focus on taxation, agriculture, welfare and demographics, Russia’s energy economy, and Russia’s place in the global economy
Ideal for courses on Russian politics and on international political economy