Graeme Gill

This book studies the way in which the top leadership in the Soviet Union changed over time from 1917 until the collapse of the country in 1991. Its principal focus is the tension between individual leadership and collective rule, and it charts how this played out over the life of the regime. The strategies used by the most prominent leader in each period – Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev – to acquire and retain power are counterposed to the strategies used by the other oligarchs to protect themselves and sustain their positions. This is analyzed against the backdrop of the emergence of norms designed to structure oligarch politics. The book will appeal to students and scholars interested in the fields of political leadership, Soviet politics and Soviet history.

Collective Leadership in Soviet Politics

Galtieri, Lukashenka, and Putin are some of the dictators whose untrammelled personal power has been seen as typical of the dog-eat-dog nature of leadership in authoritarian political systems. This book provides an innovative argument that, rather than being characterised by permanent insecurity, fear, and arbitrariness, the leadership of dictatorships is actually governed by a series of rules. The rules are identified, and their operation is shown in a range of different types of authoritarian regime. The operation of the rules is explained in ten different countries across five different regime types: the Soviet Union and China as communist single party regimes; Argentina, Brazil, and Chile as military regimes; electoral authoritarian Malaysia and Mexico; personalist dictatorships in Belarus and Russia; and the Gulf monarchies. Through close analysis of the way leadership functions in these different countries, the book shows how the rules have worked in different institutional settings. It also shows how the power distribution in authoritarian oligarchies is related to the rules. The book transforms our understanding of how authoritarian systems work.

Rules and Authoritarian Politics

Bridling Dictators

M. Steven Fish

Milenko Petrovic

This edited volume seeks to understand and explain the pattern of varying national and regional success in post-communist political and economic transition across the post-communist world. Despite widespread hopes for the development of vigorous democratic political systems and vibrant market economies, the outcomes of a quarter century of post-communist transition in the countries of the former communist bloc in Eurasia have been widely variant. Some have matched these hopes, including becoming full members of the EU; others have fallen far short, with political and economic systems little changed from the communist era. This collection, with an internationally respected list of contributors, addresses some of the pressing issues in political science and transition studies, ranging from theoretical overviews to the more specific nitty-gritty of contemporary politics.

A Quarter Century of Post-Communism Assessed

Luis F. Angosto-Ferrandez

Symbolism and Politics is a timely intervention into ongoing debates around the function of political symbols in a historical period characterized by volatile electoral behaviour, fragmented societies in search of collective identifications, and increasingly polarized political models. Symbols are central features of organized human life, helping to define perception, shaping the way we view the world and understand what goes on within it. But, despite this key role in shaping understanding, there is never a single interpretation of a symbol that everyone within the community will accept, and the way in which symbols can mobilize antagonistic political factions demonstrates that they are as much a central element in power struggles as they are avenues to facilitate processes of identification. This dual potential is the object of discussion in the chapters of this book, which sheds new light on our understanding of the political function of symbols in a historical period. Symbolism and Politics will be of great interest to scholars working on Political Symbols, Nationalism, Regime Change and Political Transitions. The chapters originally published as a special issue of Politics, Religion & Ideology.

Symbolism and Politics

Graeme J. Gill

New and challenging perspectives on Soviet political development from 1917 to 1941.

The Origins of the Stalinist Political System

James Young

Professor Department of Government Graeme Gill

There is an ever-burgeoning number of books analyzing the Russian experience, or aspects of it. This Handbook is the first single volume which gives both a broad survey of the literature as well as highlighting the cutting edge research in the area. Through both empirical data and theoretical investigation each chapter in the Routledge Handbook Russian of Politics and Society examines both the Russian experience and the existing literature, points to research trends, and identifies issues that remain to be resolved. Offering focused studies of the key elements of Russian social and political life, the book is organized into the following broad themes: General introduction Political institutions Political Economy Society Foreign Policy Politically, economically, and socially, Russia has one of the most interesting development trajectories of any major country. This Handbook seeks to answer questions about democratic transition, the relationship between the market and democracy, stability and authoritarian politics, the development of civil society, the role of crime and corruption, and the creation of a market economy. Providing a comprehensive resource for scholars and policy makers alike, this book is an important contribution to the study of Russian Studies, Eastern European studies, and International Relations.

Routledge Handbook of Russian Politics and Society

This book offers a new perspective on authoritarian politics. Rather than the leadership of the authoritarian political systems being always characterized by arbitrariness, fear, and struggle for power, this book argues that politics of such regimes are structured by a series of rules which bring some consistency and predictability.

The collapse of communism was widely heralded as the dawn of democracy across the former Soviet region. However, the political outcome has been much less uniform. The post-communist states have developed political systems from democracy to dictatorship. Using examples and empirical data collected from twenty-six former Soviet states, Graeme Gill provides a detailed comparative analysis of the core issues of regime change, the creation of civil society, economic reform and the changing nature of post-communism. Within these individual cases, it becomes clear that political outcomes have not been arbitrary, but directly reflect the circumstances surrounding the birth of independence. Students of Comparative Politics, International Relations and Russian and Post-Soviet Studies should find this book essential reading.

Graeme Gill

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