The short answer: The size of the Russian State has not increased much in the last few years, but its economic footprint remains significant. Concretely, the state's size increased from about 32 percent of GDP in 2012 to 33 percent in 2016, not far from the EBRD's estimate of 35 percent for 2005-10. This is different from the mainstream narrative, which contends that the state's size doubled in the last decade. However, a deep state footprint is reflected in a relatively high state share in formal sector activity (close to 40 percent) and formal sector employment (about 50 percent). The deep footprint is also reflected in market competition and efficiency. Although sectors in which the state is present are more concentrated, concentration is large even in sectors where the state's share is low. This suggests the need to protect and promote competition, in particular in state procurement. Finally, state-owned enterprises' performance appears weaker than that of privately-owned firms, which may be subtracting from growth.
Russian Politics Today: Stability and Fragility provides an accessible and nuanced introduction to contemporary Russian politics at a time of increasing uncertainty. Using the theme of stability versus fragility as its overarching framework, this innovative textbook explores the forces that shape Russia's politics, economy, and society. The volume provides up-to-date coverage of core themes – Russia's strong presidency, its weak party system, the role of civil society, and its dependence on oil and gas revenues – alongside path-breaking chapters on the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the environment. An international and diverse team of experts presents the most comprehensive available account of the evolution of Russian politics in the post-Soviet era, providing the tools for interpreting the past and the present while also offering a template for understanding future developments.
The short answer: The size of the Russian State has not increased much in the last few years, but its economic footprint remains significant. Concretely, the state's size increased from about 32 percent of GDP in 2012 to 33 percent in 2016, not far from the EBRD's estimate of 35 percent for 2005-10. This is different from the mainstream narrative, which contends that the state's size doubled in the last decade. However, a deep state footprint is reflected in a relatively high state share in formal sector activity (close to 40 percent) and formal sector employment (about 50 percent). The deep footprint is also reflected in market competition and efficiency. Although sectors in which the state is present are more concentrated, concentration is large even in sectors where the state's share is low. This suggests the need to protect and promote competition, in particular in state procurement. Finally, state-owned enterprises' performance appears weaker than that of privately-owned firms, which may be subtracting from growth.
This book is about the 100 years of World Wars and Regional Collaboration in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, investigating and considering how to foster Good Governance and New World Order. The world is currently at the historical turning point. The twentieth century witnessed two World Wars (WWI and WWII), followed by the Cold War that dominated geopolitics. Amidst the post-war devastation, the European Community, soon succeeded by the European Union, came into being. Peaceful governance was nurtured by building economic collaboration and institutions and by establishing liberalism, democracy and the rule of law. In Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also pursued regional governance after WWII, but in East Asia, the American Divide and Rule policy is continuing until now by the influence of China, North Korea and Russia. In the contemporary world in the twenty-first century, a new nationalism, Populism and Authoritarianism are spreading. At the same time, a wave of rapid economic growth is occurring in developing countries, especially in China and India. Destabilization is spreading in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia concurrently with the search for “Democratization”. Through the two World Wars and the Cold War which originated in 100 years of the twentieth century, what types of regional institutions and governance have been developed to avoid endless wars and conflicts? In this book, it is examined, what kind of order is necessary to stabilize the regions from conflicts and wars in both Europe and Asia. The themes of the Tokyo Conferences and the Kyoto Conference by SCJ (Science Council of Japan) in December 2020, were investigated and clarified, how the countries that were caught up in global wars have considered regional coexistence in each period, and how to establish peace, stability, and prosperity by means of new institutionalizations, norms and the rule of law. The aim of the authors is to examine and discuss How to create New World Order, Regional Collaborations and Good Governance in the historical power transition period. This book can inspire many scholars and young researchers to join in discussing how to create New World Order in the twenty-first century, from the midst of the unstable situations of the global geopolitics.
Drawing on international, transnational, and comparative legal scholarship, The Law and Policy of New Eurasian Regionalization: Economic Integration, Trade, and Investment in the Post-Soviet and Greater Eurasian Space, additionally offers the insights of a plethora of leading international scholars in economics, institutional theory, area studies, international relations, global political economy, political science, and sociology. The contributors come from four corners of the globe, including Asia, Europe, and North America.
This textbook offers a wide-ranging, comprehensive analysis of the contemporary Russian economy (as it functions in the early 2020s) concentrated on the economy, economic policy, and economic governance. Chapters cover recent Russian economic history, the economic geography of Russia, natural resources, population, major sectors and industries, living standards and social policy, institutions, governance, economic policy, and Russia's role in the global economy. The book will provide a comparative cross-country context, analysing how the Russian economy and its institutions perform compared to its peers to help students and instructors understand Russia’s strengths, weaknesses, and future challenges. Prepared by a team of leading Russian and international experts on the respective topics, this textbook will be of interest to those studying Russian economics. It will be valuable reading for undergraduate and graduate students of Russian studies, the Russian economy, Russian politics, the economics of transition, the economics of emerging markets, and international relations.
The crises emanating from the Global Financial Crisis and the COVID-19 Pandemic have underscored, the emergency role of the State and its smooth, seamless reactivation, for situations when private activity and markets are disrupted. In many countries, SOEs have been a crucial part in delivering on that effort as agents of the State. While SOEs are increasingly sought to play a role during emergency situations, evidence suggests that they misallocate capital and mismanage resources. This is indicative of the conflicts of interests in owning and regulating enterprises as well as between the commercial and non-commercial objectives of SOEs, crony capitalism, the private agenda of public officials, internal management of SOEs, the significant role played by state owned banks and financial institutions and the conflicts that arise in the State's primary role vs. its ownership of enterprises. The studies of eight countries from different regions undertaken for this book, provide answers to these key policy questions related to state capitalism. Generalizing from the results of multi-country studies to arrive at universally applicable predictions, prescriptions, and policy recommendations, is inherently difficult. Individual countries are quite different in their socio-economic, historical, political, and institutional circumstances. So are their experiences, as the eight country studies highlight, even as the book attempts to extrude, from available research, the principal common characteristics of, and practices followed by, successful SOEs independently of country context. Among other conditions, the two most important conclusions that can be drawn from the country studies are that competition and regulation rather than ownership per se is key to efficiency.
Building on an original interpretation of social theory and an interdisciplinary approach, this book creates a new paradigm in the Russian studies. Taking a fresh view of Russia’s multiple experiences of modernization, it seeks to explain the Putin era in a completely new way. This book explores the paradoxical and contradictory aspects of Russia, analyzing the energy-dependent economy and hybrid political regime, but also religion, welfare, and culture, and their often complex interrelations. Written by a community of both Western and Russian scholars, this book re-affirms the value of social science when confronting a society that has undergone enormous and costly systematic changes. The Russian elites see modernization narrowly as economic and technological competitiveness. The contributors to this volume see contemporary Russia facing a series of antinomies, which are macro-level dilemmas that cannot be abolished, either by philosophical mediation or by immediate political decisions. As such, they are the tension fields that constitute choices for various competing agencies. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Russian studies, transition studies, sociology, social policy, political science, energy policy, cultural studies, and stratification studies. Professionals involved in energy, ecology, and security policy will also find this publication a rich source.
The traditional rules-based system of the West, which has yielded peace dividends for many decades, now faces challenges from an emerging new world order. Building upon the themes introduced in Grandjean and Tan's Financial Times Readers' Best 2021 Summer Books, Values at the Core: How Human Values Contribute to the Rise of Nations, this book adopts a fresh perspective, examining historical precedents while charting a course for the future. Through accessible economic and social analyses of 12 nations, it offers insights into potential pathways forward.
This book examines how Russia and Kazakhstan navigated the dilemmas associated with building regulatory state institutions on the ruins of the Soviet command and control system. The two nations developed predatory and wasteful crony capitalism but still improved their business climates and economic performance. To better understand these seemingly incompatible outcomes, the book advances a theory of authoritarian regulatory statehood. It argues that politicians use institutions of the state as a means to balance conflicting elite demands for economic rents and popular demands for public goods and economic growth. An effective balancing of the two prevents elite subversion and popular revolt in the short run and ensures elites' continued access to economic rents in the long run. Empirical analysis of nearly a million national and regional regulatory documents enacted in Russia and Kazakhstan between 1990 and 2020 shows that formal regulatory institutions the autocrats built have a profound effect on economic outcomes. Moreover, at times of political vulnerability, autocracies use formal regulatory mechanisms to discipline state agencies responsible for policy implementation. By reducing capricious policy implementation by the regulatory bureaucracy, autocrats are able to reinvigorate economic performance and rebalance elite and popular interests. The theoretical argument advanced in the book links the use of institutional instruments of policy implementation to the political survival strategy. This study effectively shows that regulatory state building has emerged as an effective tool for strengthening autocratic regimes and enhancing their long-term survival.
