{"title":"Russia: Crisis, Exit and … Reform?","authors":"P. Hanson","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.595156","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.595156","url":null,"abstract":"Examination of Russia's experience of the economic crisis and its future economic prospects reveals evidence that the sharp fall in GDP in 2008–9 was the result of the business world's perceptions of risk, conditioned by institutional weaknesses; it cannot be blamed simply on the fall in oil prices. Analysis of sources of growth, and of policy and reform options, indicates that the development of Russian GDP in 2010–20 is likely to be slower than in 1998–2008; radical economic and political reform is unlikely, but partial economic reform may be capable of generating some improvements in performance.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"14 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133542326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Tandem and the Crisis","authors":"O. Kryshtanovskaya","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.595357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.595357","url":null,"abstract":"Unlike his predecessor Vladimir Putin, Dmitrii Medvedev had relatively little success in promoting his own supporters to leading positions. His meetings with defence and security officials took place less frequently, and were more highly formalized; he met key economic ministers less often than his predecessor, and continued to meet them irregularly even during the worst of the international economic crisis. Responses to the crisis, in practice, were devolved to government commissions, which met daily. Putin's political weight was meanwhile enhanced by his appointments to leading companies and by the substantial majority in the Duma that had been secured by United Russia, of which he was the leader. The ‘tandem’ was an unstable construction that depended entirely on the relationship between the two leaders; but it survived the economic crisis, in large part because Russia's soft authoritarianism allowed no space for an independent media and a political opposition to resist and delay its decisions.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133938995","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ukraine's Foreign Policy Choices after the 2010 Presidential Election","authors":"E. Kropatcheva","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.595161","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.595161","url":null,"abstract":"The main foreign policy puzzle after the 2010 presidential election in Ukraine is whether Viktor Yanukovych will reverse the Western-oriented policy of his predecessor in favour of a single pro-Russian vector. Another question is what impact the global financial crisis has had and will have on Ukraine's foreign policy choices. Finally, what factors are influencing foreign policy choices made in Ukraine? Neoclassical realism helps us to delineate the complexity of the situation in and around Ukraine, which makes various scenarios plausible: from a single pro-Russian or a single pro-Western orientation to attempts to conduct a balanced multi-vector policy.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115560625","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Micro-economic Responses to a Macro-economic Crisis: A Pan-European Perspective","authors":"R. Rose","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.595153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.595153","url":null,"abstract":"To what extent has the macro-economic crisis of national governments and financial institutions affected ordinary Europeans at the micro-economic level? Eurobarometer surveys from all 27 European Union (EU) member states show that most individuals are coping with the crisis much better than their governments. Individual characteristics that caused people to have financial difficulties when the macro-economy was booming continue to be important, while groups such as pensioners are better able to cope than persons of working age. When Russians are compared with people from Central and Eastern Europe, similar influences hold and the political effects are marginal. In sum, the instability experienced in public and private sector financial institutions has had limited spillover effects on ordinary people.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115695492","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The International Economic Crisis and the 2010 Presidential Elections in Ukraine","authors":"Marko Bojcun","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.595160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.595160","url":null,"abstract":"The international financial crisis of 2007–9 had a significant impact upon the context, agenda and outcome of the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections. Among the main reasons for Viktor Yanukovych's success in winning the election were his business-friendly policies, his advocacy of stability and his pro-Russian orientation. His platform chimed with the sentiments of large numbers of voters who were taking a defensive posture in the face of a year-long recession. Yuliya Tymoshenko was treated – and punished – because as the incumbent prime minister she failed to utilize the resources available to her government, including a large IMF loan, to bring the recession to a halt and stimulate a recovery. Viktor Yushchenko was rejected by the electorate because he was increasingly regarded as a president incapable of co-operative relations either with his own government or with the Russian government. These capacities in a president were seen by the electorate as indispensable for tackling the crisis.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-09-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116907116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Croatia and Serbia since 1991: An Assessment of Their Similarities and Differences","authors":"S. Ramet","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.564098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.564098","url":null,"abstract":"In spite of ostensibly similar starting points in 1991, Croatia and Serbia have followed somewhat different political trajectories since then. Three alternative hypotheses may be advanced to account for this. The first draws attention to differences in the degree of corruption and criminalization of politics. The second emphasizes structural and institutional differences, which widened in the years since 1991. The third stresses the impact of history textbooks, media and wartime propaganda on each nation's political culture. While all three hypotheses have something to offer, structural and institutional differences and differences in political culture have been more important than corruption or criminalization in accounting for the specific differences in the political paths of these two countries.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"20 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121072184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Communism for the Twenty-first Century: The Moldovan Experiment","authors":"Theodor Tudoroiu","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.564101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.564101","url":null,"abstract":"For most of the first decade of the present century, Moldova was governed by the Party of Communists of Moldova, led by Vladimir Voronin, who displayed impressive political skills as the president of the republic and party leader. In office, the party engaged in a political reorientation towards Europe in 2004–5 and an ideological transformation in 2008, yet the party remains a superficially reformed, non-transmuted communist successor party. During eight years in office, 2001–9, it led a semi-consolidated authoritarian regime similar to the neo-communist constructs of Ion Iliescu in Romania and Zhan Videnov in Bulgaria. The crisis of 2009 weakened the party, however, with defections of leading communists to other parties. Moldova has thus returned to a situation of ‘pluralism by default’ and a hybrid political regime, in which the communists, though weakened, remain a potent political force.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130161507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Labour Management in Belarus: Transcendent Retrogression","authors":"Hanna Danilovich, R. Croucher","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.564095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.564095","url":null,"abstract":"Labour management practices at enterprise level in Belarus are more negative for workers than those under the Soviet system. Welfare has largely disappeared, as has Soviet-style informal bargaining; wage payment may be in kind; training is minimal; job insecurity is extreme and trade unions perform a corporatist role. Thus, as Burawoy argued, ‘involutionary retrogression’ has indeed taken place, but in what may be denominated a ‘transcendent’ form.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125112903","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Institutionalizing Pluralism in Russia: A New Authoritarianism?","authors":"Laura Petrone","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.564086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.564086","url":null,"abstract":"Contemporary Russia is a peculiar regime which combines democratic and authoritarian features: here internal factors strongly prevail over external variables of democratic imitation and contagion, showing the extent to which Russia differs from other political contexts. The leadership uses some strategies to solve internal conflicts and become stable in spite of democratizing pressures coming from outside. In particular, the mechanisms are aimed at limiting pluralism within the two arenas of political competition and civil society, from where the major threats to the status quo are supposed to come. The incumbents' interventions in these spheres during the past ten years have shaped a regime that can be understood by reference to the concept of ‘new authoritarianism’.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124611110","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Significance of a Non-event: Dmitrii Medvedev's 2010 Presidential Address to Parliament","authors":"M. Urban, Rouslan Khestanov","doi":"10.1080/13523279.2011.564103","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13523279.2011.564103","url":null,"abstract":"Dmitrii Medvedev delivered his third presidential address to the Russian parliament in an atmosphere marked by widening fissures in the country's power structure and increasing calls for political reform. His public statements in recent months had led many to believe that he was prepared to stand again for the presidency, this time on a reformist platform, and that this speech would launch his campaign. His banal and conservative address deeply disappointed them. A close analysis of that address, however, shows that it is altogether congruent with Russian political discourse, and thus indeed signalled his bid for another term in office.","PeriodicalId":206400,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics","volume":"58 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-05-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128836764","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}