Soviet History - 1964-1991, 1991 - Present (Post-Soviet Russia) - History, Communism by Region, 1917 - 1991 (Soviet Union) - History, Russia (Federation) - History - Political Aspects, Democracies & Republics - General & Miscellaneous, Russia & Former Sov
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Overview
This book presents a fresh view of Russian political change in the Gorbachev and early post-Soviet periods not by examining perestroika and glasnost in and of themselves, but by investigating the autonomous political organizations that responded to liberalization. Extensive study of these political groups, in Moscow and several provincial cities, has led M. Steven Fish to conclude that they were shaped to a far greater degree by the nature of the Soviet state than by socioeconomic modernization, political culture, native psychology, or Russian historical tradition. Fish's statist theory of societal change in Russia yields a powerful explanation of why Russia's new political society differs radically not only from the "totalized," subjugated country of the pre-1985 period but also from the "civil societies" found in the West and in many developing countries. In addition, the author shows how the legacy of the Soviet experience continues to influence the development - arguably the underdevelopment - of representative political institutions in post-Soviet Russia, making the establishment of stable democracy unlikely in the near term. Democracy from Scratch proposes a novel and theoretically sophisticated way to study Russian politics. It offers a rigorous approach to understanding social movements, political party formation, regime change, and democratization in general. While focusing primarily on a single country, it is vigorously comparative at the same time.Editorials
New Statesman & Society -
An original and provocative study....Drawing on his scrupulous analysis of group-formation in a number of Russian cities,...Fish reevaluates received views about the Soviet system.The New Leader -
A detailed, on-the-spot investigation of the new political parties and movements that sprang up between Gorbachev's initiation of semi-free elections in 1989 and the August 1991 coup. . . . It conveys a fascinating picture, however, of the fumbling and bumbling by would-be democratic leaders when the window of opportunity opened.Political Science Quarterly
A smart book that speaks to the concerns not only of area specialists but to students of democratic transition around the world.Foreign Affairs
An intelligent, subtle, first-hand account of the years after Gorbachev opened the door with perestroika.New Statesman & Society
An original and provocative study....Drawing on his scrupulous analysis of group-formation in a number of Russian cities,...Fish reevaluates received views about the Soviet system.— Robert Shannan Peckham
Choice
The book is an important contribution to our understanding of the disorganized hyperactivity of political organizations in Russia.Political Science Quarterly
A smart book that speaks to the concerns not only of area specialists but to students of democratic transition around the world.— Philip G. Roeder
The New Leader
A detailed, on-the-spot investigation of the new political parties and movements that sprang up between Gorbachev's initiation of semi-free elections in 1989 and the August 1991 coup. . . . It conveys a fascinating picture, however, of the fumbling and bumbling by would-be democratic leaders when the window of opportunity opened.— Robert V. Daniels
Book Details
Published
February 8, 1995
Publisher
Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1995.
Pages
312
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780691037035