A SPECIAL PATH? MODERNIZATION VIEW ON THE HISTORY OF NEW RUSSIA

Abstract

The article is an analytical review of the book The Russian Path: Ideas, Interests, Institutions, Illusions by Dmitry Travin, Vladimir Gel'man and Andrei Zaostrovtsev, published by the European University at St. Petersburg Press. Its focus is on breakthroughs and failures of Russian modernization over the past few decades. The authors of the book use their own approach to analyze political and economic transformation processes based on four ‘I’s – Ideas, Interests, Institutions and Illusions. The review examines all these interrelated elements and demonstrates their connection to the character of the reforms in post-Soviet Russia. It also describes some of the institutional foundations of the economic and political development of modern Russia as stated by the authors of the book and analyzes how the changes were implemented in ‘technocratic’ reforms. Finally, some conclusions on the political and economic prospects of Russia are made in the review. The nine chapters of the book draw a versatile picture of the last thirty years – from ‘perestroika’ and collapse of the USSR to the contemporary ‘post-Crimean’ political regime. In the conclusion, some limitations of the reviewed book are outlined, such as its disciplinary isolation connected with the prevalence of the ideas and methods of political science and economics, and the persisting ideological bias of the authors. The publication is interesting for its universalistic view on the issues discussed and can be recommended not only to political scientists, economists or sociologists but also to a wide readership.DOI: 10.17072/2218-1067-2019-4-116-121