Search

The reasons for deterioration of post-communist government infrastructure after the collapse of old regimes in Eastern Europe and former Soviet Union are discussed.

A critical discussion of a widely popular ideas-centered interpretation of transformative processes in post-communism, the view that during the 1990s, politics in Eastern Europe was dominated by the ideology of neoliberalism is presented. Arguments reveal that the ideas-centered analyses that dominate accounts of socioeconomic change in post-communism rest on questionable assumptions, faulty logic, and fragmentary empirical findings.

This article discusses the relationship between postcommunist states and economic groups dominating the restructuring of the state, focusing, in this case, on Bulgaria. The author examines state weaknesses and how strategic actions of private institutions undermine the organization and capacity of the state.

Claus Offe, Jon Elster, and Ulrich Preuss, Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies: Rebuilding the Ship at Sea (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Herbert Kitschelt, Zdenka Mansfeldova, Radoslaw Markowski and [...]

This article explores the various ways in which Karen Dawisha's book Putin's Kleptocracy improves our understanding of the impact of elite behavior on postcommunist politics. It focuses specifically on the modes of agency whereby Vladimir Putin and his collaborators transposed cultural schemas, mobilized polysemic resources and launched concrete projects. The text also offers an analysis of the Putin clique's modus operandi, and in particular of how knowledge about Western legal and illegal economic practices is utilized and how the preference for secret actions affects Russian political elites' capacity to form alliances with important social constituencies. Finally, the paper examines one of the most compelling messages that Putin's Kleptocracy conveys, namely that a discrepancy exists between the objective pursued by Putin, the rise of Russia as a global power, and the organizational strategy which he deploys in pursuit of this project, single-minded reliance on strong personal ties -- a strategy that undermines the institutional basis of Russian statehood and renders undeliverable the benefits of good governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the protest over the appointment of a shady media mogul to head the State Agency for National Security by the Bulgaria's Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski's new Socialistled government. it states that protest featured active and passive protagonists in which active protagonists were oligarchs dictating orders and passive protagonists were Bulgaria's citizens.