The Politics of Transition: Shaping a Post-Soviet Future

Stephen White

Cambridge University Press, Aug 27, 1993 - Political Science - 277 pages

The Soviet system has undergone a dramatic transformation: from communist monopoly to multiparty politics, from Marxism to competing values, from centralisation to fragmentation, and from state ownership to a mixed economy. This book, by three of the West's leading scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet affairs, traces the politics of transition in the late 1980s and early 1990s from its origins to its uncertain post-communist future. The authors analyse the full impact of transition on official and popular values, central and local political institutions, post-Soviet republics, the CPSU and the parties which replaced it, and political participation. A final chapter considers the problematic nature of this form of 'democracy from above'. Detailed but clearly and accessibly written, The politics of transition provides an ideal guide to the changes that have been taking place in the politics of the newly independent nations that together constitute a sixth of the world's land surface.

Contents

• Beyond Marxism: 1
• Reforming the electoral system: 20
• Structures of government: 39
• The Presidency and central government: 60
• From union to independence: 79
• Patterns of republic and local politics: 98
• The withering away of the party: 117
• The emergence of competitive politics: 140
• The politics of economic interests: 164
• Public opinion and the political process: 178
• Letters and political communication: 193
• The Soviet transition and democracy from above: 212
• Index: 274

About the author

Stephen White is a clinical psychologist and a New York Times bestselling author of eighteen previous crime novels, including The Siege and The Last Lie. He lives in Colorado.

Graeme Gill is Professor of Government and Public Administration and an ARC Australian Professorial Fellow at The University of Sydney. Prior to his appointment at Sydney, he held teaching positions at Monash University and The University of Tasmania. He has been a long-time student of Soviet and
Russian politics, but has also published on democratisation and the development of the state. He has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia since 1994

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Politics of Transition: Shaping a Post-Soviet Future
• Author: Stephen White
• Editors: Graeme Gill, Darrell Slider
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1993
• ISBN: 0521446341, 9780521446341
• Length: 277 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Russia & the Former Soviet Union; Political Science / General; Political Science / Political Ideologies / Democracy