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The Transition to National Armies in the Former Soviet Republics, 1988-2005
This book looks at the militaries of the late-Soviet and post-Soviet republics. Beginning with the end of the Soviet era, it recognises that the successor states did not spring from nowhere, but inherited a legacy that influenced all that followed. The book discusses how politicians control the instruments that are the manifestation of the state’s monopoly on violence, and how society views and supports the military. By taking a bottom up empirical approach that examines the personnel, leaders, organisations and institutions, and their outlook and attitudes, the book presents a comprehensive picture of the armed forces, showing how the armed forces are very significantly shaped by the surrounding political and social environment. The book goes on to examine the armed forces in action, and highlights that to truly understand the militaries, studies need to go beyond looking at the static structures.
The Fall of the Iron Curtain and the Culture of Europe
The end of communism in Europe has tended to be discussed mainly in the context of political science and history. This book, in contrast, assesses the cultural consequences for Europe of the disappearance of the Soviet bloc. Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, the book examines the new narratives about national, individual and European identities that have emerged in literature, theatre and other cultural media, investigates the impact of the re-unification of the continent on the mental landscape of Western Europe as well as Eastern Europe and Russia, and explores the new borders in the form of divisive nationalism that have reappeared since the disappearance of the Iron Curtain.
Russia after 2012
This book provides an overview of the state of Russia after the 2012 presidential election. It considers a wide range of both domestic and international issues, examining both the run up to and the consequences of the election. It covers political, economic, and social topics. It assesses the political scene both before and after the election, and discusses the nature of and likely future of democracy in Russia. The election’s impact on the Russian economy is discussed in detail, as are Russia’s relationships with the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the world.
Rethinking Public Governance
Contributions for this volume are based on the conference "Rethinking Public Governance" held in Budapest at Hungary's National University of Public Service within the framework of the Transatlantic Policy Consortium (TPC) in 2015. The papers cover a range of topics, including the importance of education and of efficient management of government resources for successful democracy building processes, analysis of formality and informality in public administration, and analysis of select ethnic minority problems. The papers represent various approaches connecting research and policy. Dr. Tibor Babos is a chief government advisor on security policy at the Prime Minister's Office, Hungary. Dr. Sameeksha Desai is an associate professor at Indiana University, School of Public & Env. Affairs. Dr. Andreas Knorr is professor of economics at the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer.
The Challenges for Russia's Politicized Economic System
During the early 2000s the market liberalization reforms to the Russian economy, begun in the 1990s, were consolidated. But since the mid 2000s economic policy has moved into a new phase, characterized by more state intervention with less efficiency and more structural problems. Corruption, weak competitiveness, heavy dependency on energy exports, an unbalanced labour market, and unequal regional development are trends that have arisen and which, this book argues, will worsen unless the government changes direction. The book provides an in-depth analysis of the current Russian economic system, highlighting especially structural and institutional defects, and areas where political considerations are causing distortions, and puts forward proposals on how the present situation could be remedied.
Business in Post-Communist Russia
It is a widely held idea that Russia has completed its revolution which brought down the Soviet economy, and that many companies after privatisation work as typical western companies. Another belief is that Russia has adopted a market economy but then reverted to authoritarianism. With these two ideas in mind, this book discusses the suggestion that the key element of post-Soviet economic and political reforms in the last two decades was the redistribution of assets from the state to oligarchs and the new elite. It looks at why most Russian companies could not achieve strong long–run corporate performance by analysing in detail a range of different Russian companies. The book is a useful tool for understanding the future prospects for Russian business.
Boundaries of Utopia - Imagining Communism from Plato to Stalin
The idea that socialism could be established in a single country was adopted as an official doctrine by the Soviet Union in 1925, Stalin and Bukharin being the main formulators of the policy. Before this there had been much debate as to whether the only way to secure socialism would be as a result of socialist revolution on a much broader scale, across all Europe or wider still. This book traces the development of ideas about communist utopia from Plato onwards, paying particular attention to debates about universalist ideology versus the possibility for "socialism in one country". The book argues that although the prevailing view is that "socialism in one country" was a sharp break from a long tradition that tended to view socialism as only possible if universal, in fact the territorially confined socialist project had long roots, including in the writings of Marx and Engels.
Art and Protest in Putin's Russia
The Pussy Riot protest, and the subsequent heavy handed treatment of the protestors, grabbed the headlines, but this was not an isolated instance of art being noticeably critical of the regime. As this book, based on extensive original research, shows, there has been gradually emerging over recent decades a significant counter-culture in the art world which satirises and ridicules the regime and the values it represents, at the same time putting forward, through art, alternative values. The book traces the development of art and protest in recent decades, discusses how art of this kind engages in political and social protest, and provides many illustrations as examples of art as protest. The book concludes by discussing how important art has been in facilitating new social values and in prompting political protests.
Regulatory Reform from Nixon to Biden
This book examines the development of regulatory policy since the 1960s, focusing on how each president, from Nixon to Biden, stimulated reform. Highlighting the increasingly dominant role of the president in the modern administrative state, John D. Graham presents a regulatory reform agenda for Congress, the executive branch, and the judiciary.
Citizen Participation in Multi-level Democracies
Citizen Participation in Multi-level Democracies offers an overview of new forms of participatory democracy in federally and regionally organised multi-level states. Its four sections focus on the conceptual foundations of participation, the implementation and instruments of democracy, examples from federal and regional States, and the emergence of participation on the European level. There is today a growing disaffection amongst the citizens of many states towards the traditional models of representative democracy. This book highlights the various functional and structural problems with which contemporary democracies are confronted and which lie at the root of their peoples’ discontent. Within multi-level systems in particular, the fragmentation of state authority generates feelings of powerlessness among citizens. In this context, citizens’ participation can in many cases be a useful complement to the representative and direct forms of democracy.
