Building Democracy In Contemporary Russia

Can foreign donors help build new democracies? In the 1990s, public and private organizations such as USAID and the Soros Foundation poured huge amounts of money and expertise into Russia to help build the dream of a vibrant democratic society. Sarah L. Henderson argues that despite the altruistic intentions of foreign assistance agencies and domestic activists, foreign aid designed to spur civic growth has had unintended consequences. Drawing on extensive field work, survey research, and work experience for several funding agencies in Moscow in the late 1990s, Henderson focuses on donor efforts to support the emerging community of nongovernmental organizations and, in particular, on efforts to build a functioning women's movement in Russia. Her intimate knowledge of Russia's growing NGO community informs a worrisome finding: foreign aid has made a tremendous difference, but not in altogether expected or positive ways. New Russian civic groups serve either the needs of an indigenous clientele or the demands of the foreign aid bureaucracy—but rarely both. Henderson's research and experience show that while aid has kept a fledgling civic community alive, it is a civic community that is disconnected from its own domestic audience. The book suggests that large flows of foreign aid have in some ways damaged the long-term prospects for democratization in Russia.

Reflects current events and developments in the country

This book examines the evolution, contexts and politics of the structures and institutions that shape contemporary Russia. It analyses the Soviet dissolution, revealing the combination of structural and agency factors. It traces the re-emergence of Russia from a unique perspective that is neither Western nor Eurasian, but specifically Indian, located in the global South. The book looks at key theoretical concepts and practices like democratic centralism that produced an overly centralised and rigid hierarchy within the Communist Party. This book assesses the continuities and changes with the Soviet past and the way the Russian regimes of the past two decades have reinvented and reshaped them. This book provides a multifaceted interpretation of contemporary Russia for general readers and specialists.

This text considers the challenges of building democracy in post-Soviet Armenia. It argues that, contrary to the expectations of Western aid donors, who promoted civil society assuming that democratisation would follow automatically, democratic regimes have failed to materialise.

This book explores the idea of civil society and how it is being implemented in Eastern Europe. The implosion of the Russian empire fifteen years ago and the new wave of democratization opened a new field of inquiry. The wide-ranging debate on the transition became focused on a conceptual battle, the question of how to define "civil society". Because totalitarian systems shun self-organization, real existing civil society barely existed East of the Elbe, and the emergence of civil society took unusually complex and puzzling forms, which varied with national culture, and reflected the deep historical past of these societies. This insightful text relates the concept of civil society and developments in Eastern Europe to wider sociological theories, and makes international comparisons where appropriate. It discusses particular aspects of civil society, and examines the difficulties of establishing civil society. It concludes by assessing the problems and prospects for civil society in Eastern Europe going forward.

This book adopts a novel analytical approach to understanding how Russia's stalled democratisation is related to the incomplete liberalisation of the economy. Based on extensive original comparative study of Russia’s regions, the book explores the precise channels of interaction that create the mutuality of property rights, entrepreneurship, rule of law, norms of citizenship and liberal democracy. It demonstrates that the extent of democratisation varies across regions, and that this variation is connected to the extent of liberalisation of the economy. Moreover, it argues that the key factor in producing this linkage is the relative prominence of small business owners and their supporters in articulating their interests vis-à-vis regional and local administrations, especially through the institutionalisation of networks and business associations. The book develops its key theses by means of detailed analysis of the experiences of four case study regions. Overall, the book provides a major contribution to understanding the path of democratisation in Russia.

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada.

A study of the prospects for further democratization in the Russian Federation. Analyzes various indicators of the degree of socio- economic modernization across 89 regions of the Federation, and examines evidence of sufficient social capital to make democracy work. By focusing on social and economic factors which help serve as the basis for democracy, this study readily lends itself to usefulness in comparing Russia with other political systems. Marsh is associate director of Slavic and East European studies and assistant professor of political science at Baylor University.