This book examines the coexistence of crony capitalism and
traditionally democratic institutions such as political competition
and elections in Russia after the collapse of communism. The
combination, Gulnaz Sharafutdinova argues, has produced a distinct
pattern of political evolution in contemporary Russia. Elections
are meant to ensure government accountability and allow voters to
elect a government responsive to their needs, but in postcommunist
Russia the institutional forms of democracy did not result in the
expected outcomes. Instead, democratic institutions in the context
of crony capitalism--in which informal elite groups dominate policy
making, and preferential treatment from the state, not market
forces, is crucial to amassing and holding wealth--were widely
devalued and discredited.
As Sharafutdinova demonstrates, especially through her close
scrutiny of elections in two regions of Russia, Nizhnii Novgorod
and the Republic of Tatarstan, crony capitalism made elections
especially intense struggles among the elites. Massive amounts of
money flowed into campaigns to promote candidates by discrediting
their rivals, money purchased candidates and power, and elites
thereby solidified their control. As a result, the majority of
citizens perceived elections as the means for the elite to access
power and wealth rather than as expressions of public will. Through
her detailed case studies and her analyses of contemporary Russia
in general, Sharafutdinova argues persuasively that the turn toward
authoritarianism associated with Vladimir Putin and supported by a
majority of Russian citizens was a negative political response to
the interaction of electoral processes and crony capitalism.
"This is one of the most interesting and well-argued books I
have read recently on the question of democracy in Russia, and its
bold thesis is likely to appeal well beyond students of Russia to
the much larger number of readers (and students) interested in
general questions of democratization and problems of corruption."
--Henry Hale, George Washington University
"Gulnaz Sharafutdinova explores the development of crony
capitalism in Russia, based on the contrasting cases of Tatarstan
and Nizhnii Novgorod. She argues that the corruption which
accompanied the market transition seeped over into electoral
politics, and was a major factor in undermining popular support for
democratic institutions. This finding is a challenge to transition
theory, which posits that democracy and capitalism work hand in
hand. Few scholars have tackled the question of exactly how and why
Russian democracy eroded as quickly as it sprang up.
Sharafutdinova's book is an important contribution to that debate."
--Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University
"This well-argued and convincingly documented book will be of
interest to scholars of Russian politics, and corruption more
broadly, as well as to policymakers interested in getting an
overview of the logic of the Yeltsin years and the Putin response."
--Anna Grzymala-Busse, University of Michigan
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