The New Autocracy by Daniel Treisman

Author:Daniel Treisman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

CONCLUSION

In 2016 Russia entered its seventeenth year under Putin’s leadership and its ninth year of economic stagnation. On the positive side, macroeconomic policy under Putin has been consistently conservative. Over the years, the efforts of private business people, supported by professionals within the government, have led to some limited reforms and improved the quality of life of Russians. In 2016 Russians drive more cars over better roads, have access to a far wider spectrum of financial services, and enjoy more streamlined bureaucratic procedures than they did in 1999.

However, the negative side is no less apparent. Russia’s windfall oil revenues financed the formation of a personalized, archaic political regime. Large private businesses have become inseparable from the state administration. Attempts to create better institutions—never particularly effective—have been replaced by a proliferation of ad hoc, individual projects. With political arrangements set up to keep the current leadership in power, and tiny elites busy exploiting connections to the leader to enrich themselves, there is no reason to expect much-needed economic and institutional reforms to come from above. Whether such reforms might occur under pressure “from below” without a serious disruption remains an open question.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.