#7
NEW from CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS
RUSSIA'S UNFINISHED REVOLUTION
Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin
Michael McFaul
"Both a path-breaking study of Russian politics and a major work on
institutional change, Russias Unfinished Revolution provides the best
analytic and theoretical account I have seen of how and why a broad range
of actors may come to accept an ambiguous and flawed regime. The access
that Michael McFaul has won and the understanding that he has mobilized are
nothing short of breathtaking." Larry Diamond, Co-editor of Journal of
Democracy.
"Even those whose opinions differ from Michael McFaul's interpretations
of
transformative change in Russian politics since the second half of the
1980s will find this book stimulating and exceptionally well informed.
McFaul combines theoretical grounding with readability --a far from common
achievement." Archie Brown, Oxford University.
Dictators have ruled Russia for centuries. Czars and Communist Party chiefs
were in charge for so long that it became difficult to imagine a different
kind of political system in Russia. How did democracy, however imperfect,
emerge from this reluctant ground? McFaul explores this question, and its
ramifications, in a detailed analysis of Russia's revolutionary transition
from communism to democracy. With an informed eye he assesses the
transition critically, weighing successes and failures equally. "Russia's
transition from communism to democracy has not been smooth, fast, or
entirely successful," McFaul notes. "Comparatively speaking, Russia
has
been in transition from one type of regime to another for a much longer
period than that experienced by most other modern states that have made
recent transitions to democracy." McFaul's book looks at the Gorbachev
period (1985-1991), the First Russian Republic (1991-1993), and the Second
Russian Republic (1993-present). He accounts for the failure of Gorbachev's
efforts to create a "new set of rules that was accepted by all major
political actors," and traces "a similar pattern of institutional
design
from above that eventually ended in polarization, confrontation, and
failure of reform" in the First Russian Republic. He also explains why the
political rules of the game became more institutionalized during the Second
Russian Republic than in the previous two periods. The importance of
McFaul's book cannot be overestimated; his analysis of the modern Russian
politics is timely. He identifies not only the trajectories of change that
are already clear in Russia, but also "the factors that may alter the
direction of regime consolidation," an issue of vital importance as a new
era of U.S.-Russian relations unfolds." All great social revolutions unfold
over decades, not months or years," McFaul writes. "Ten years after
the
American war for Independence began, the United States still did not have a
constitution. Today, political scientists have added little to our
predictive powers during moments of rapid change." Ultimately, McFaul
acknowledges that "many chapters of the second Russian revolution have yet
to unfold."
Contents
* The Revolutionary Transition from Communism to Democracy: A Model
PART I. THE GORBACHEV ERA, 1985-1991
* Gorbachev's Design for Reforming Soviet Political Institutions
* The End of the Soviet Union
PART II. THE FIRST RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, 1991-1993
* Institutional Design in the First Russian Republic
* The Failure of the First Russian Republic
PART III. THE EMERGENCE OF THE SECOND RUSSIAN REPUBLIC, 1993-1996
* Designing Political Institutions of the Second Russian Republic
* Transitional Constitutionalism
* Transitional Electoralism
PART IV: THE FUTURE OF RUSSIAN DEMOCRACY
* The Quality of Russian Democracy
* The Stability of Russian Democracy
Michael McFaul is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Research
Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a Senior
Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the
author of several books and articles on Russian politics.
383 pages
Cloth ISBN 0-8014-3900-0
$35.00
This book can be ordered directly from Cornell University Press, by email
at orderbook@cupserv.org or on the
web at cornellpress.cornell.edu
or
www.amazon.com. or local bookstores.
