The Political Economy of Putin's Russia Sutela, Pekka
The Political Economy of Putin's Russia,
2013, 2012, 20130228, 2013-02-28, 20120101, Letnik:
155
eBook, Book Chapter
This book constitutes an up-to-date treatment of Russia's economic development and economic policies since 2000, when Vladimir Putin became the President of Russia. After the slow decline and sudden ...collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia embarked upon a multi-faceted change. This included transition from central management to a market economy, from one-party rule to democracy, from multi-national empire to nation state, and from relative autarchy to opening up to the European and global communities. This book concentrates on economic change, exploring how in spite of steep production decline, widening welfare differentials and increasing social uncertainty, the 1990s also created many of the institutional and policy preconditions for a functioning market economy.
Mass mobilization is among the most dramatic and inspiring forces for political change. When ordinary citizens take to the streets in large numbers, they can undermine and even topple undemocratic ...governments, as the recent wave of peaceful uprisings in several postcommunist states has shown. However, investigation into how protests are organized can sometimes reveal that the origins and purpose of "people power" are not as they appear on the surface. In particular, protest can be used as an instrument of elite actors to advance their own interests rather than those of the masses.
Weapons of the Wealthyfocuses on the region of post-Soviet Central Asia to investigate the causes of elite-led protest. In nondemocratic states, economic and political opportunities can give rise to elites who are independent of the regime, yet vulnerable to expropriation and harassment from above. In conditions of political uncertainty, elites have an incentive to cultivate support in local communities, which elites can then wield as a "weapon" against a predatory regime. Scott Radnitz builds on his in-depth fieldwork and analysis of the spatial distribution of protests to demonstrate how Kyrgyzstan's post-independence development laid the groundwork for elite-led mobilization, whereas Uzbekistan's did not.
Elites often have the wherewithal and the motivation to trigger protests, as is borne out by Radnitz's more than one hundred interviews with those who participated in, observed, or avoided protests. Even Kyrgyzstan's 2005 "Tulip Revolution," which brought about the first peaceful change of power in Central Asia since independence, should be understood as a strategic action of elites rather than as an expression of the popular will. This interpretation helps account for the undemocratic nature of the successor government and the 2010 uprising that toppled it. It also serves as a warning for scholars to look critically at bottom-up political change.
What Muscovites get in a soup kitchen run by the Christian Church of Moscow is something far more subtle and complex-if no less necessary and nourishing-than the food that feeds their hunger. InNot ...by Bread Alone,the first full-length ethnographic study of poverty and social welfare in the postsocialist world, Melissa L. Caldwell focuses on the everyday operations and civil transactions at CCM soup kitchens to reveal the new realities, the enduring features, and the intriguing subtext of social support in Russia today. In an international food aid community, Caldwell explores how Muscovites employ a number of improvisational tactics to satisfy their material needs. She shows how the relationships that develop among members of this community-elderly Muscovite recipients, Russian aid workers, African student volunteers, and North American and European donors and volunteers-provide forms of social support that are highly valued and ultimately far more important than material resources. InNot by Bread Alonewe see how the soup kitchens become sites of social stability and refuge for all who interact there-not just those with limited financial means-and how Muscovites articulate definitions of hunger and poverty that depend far more on the extent of one's social contacts than on material factors. By rethinking the ways in which relationships between social and economic practices are theorized-by identifying social relations and social status as Russia's true economic currency-this book challenges prevailing ideas about the role of the state, the nature of poverty and welfare, the feasibility of Western-style reforms, and the primacy of social connections in the daily lives of ordinary people in post-Soviet Russia.
Why do strong opposition party organizations emerge in some democratizing countries, while those in others remain weak or quickly fragment on ethnic lines? This book offers an explanation for why ...opposition parties vary in organizational form, cohesion, and mobilizational reach. The book draws upon an in-depth analysis of three countries in Anglophone Africa: Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Kenya. Though these countries share similar institutional frameworks, including electoral rules, party development has taken a different route in each. The explanation emphasizes the ways in which historical legacies interact with strategic choices to produce different trajectories of party development. In terms of the role of history, the book argues that strong opposition parties are more likely where authoritarian states relied on alliances with corporate actors like labor. In these contexts, ruling parties armed their allies, providing them with mobilizing structures and political resources that could later be used to challenge the state. Secondly, opposition parties are more likely to maintain their organizational cohesion and the commitment of activists when they use strategies and appeals that escalate conflict and reorient social boundaries around the lines of partisan affiliation. Polarization forges stronger parties, but it also increases the likelihood of violence and authoritarian retrenchment. The book provides an explanation of why democratization in the hybrid regimes of the late Third Wave may prove more conflictual and more protracted than earlier transitions to democracy.
Our collective memories of World War II and Vietnam have been shaped as much by memoirs, novels, and films as they have been by history books. InWelcome to the Suck, Stacey Peebles examines the ...growing body of contemporary war stories in prose, poetry, and film that speak to the American soldier's experience in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War.
Stories about war always encompass ideas about initiation, masculinity, cross-cultural encounters, and trauma. Peebles shows us how these timeless themes find new expression among a generation of soldiers who have grown up in a time when it has been more acceptable than ever before to challenge cultural and societal norms, and who now have unprecedented and immediate access to the world away from the battlefield through new media and technology.
Two Gulf War memoirs by Anthony Swofford (Jarhead) and Joel Turnipseed (Baghdad Express) provide a portrait of soldiers living and fighting on the cusp of the major political and technological changes that would begin in earnest just a few years later. The Iraq War, a much longer conflict, has given rise to more and various representations. Peebles covers a blog by Colby Buzzell ("My War"), memoirs by Nathaniel Fick (One Bullet Away) and Kayla Williams (Love My Rifle More Than You); a collection of stories by John Crawford (The Last True Story I'll Ever Tell); poetry by Brian Turner (Here, Bullet); the documentaryAlive Day Memories; and the feature films In the Valley of Elahand the winner of the 2010 Oscar for Best Picture,The Hurt Locker, both written by the war correspondent Mark Boal.
Books and other media emerging from the conflicts in the Gulf have yet to receive the kind of serious attention that Vietnam War texts received during the 1980s and 1990s. With its thoughtful and timely analysis,Welcome to the Suckwill provoke much discussion among those who wish to understand today's war literature and films and their place in the tradition of war representation more generally.
In 1991, certain political and military leaders in Somalia, wishing to gain exclusive control over the state, mobilized their followers to use terror-wounding, raping, and killing-to expel a vast ...number of Somalis from the capital city of Mogadishu and south-central and southern Somalia. Manipulating clan sentiment, they succeeded in turning ordinary civilians against neighbors, friends, and coworkers. Although this episode of organized communal violence is common knowledge among Somalis, its real nature has not been publicly acknowledged and has been ignored, concealed, or misrepresented in scholarly works and political memoirs-until now. Marshaling a vast amount of source material, including Somali poetry and survivor accounts,Clan Cleansing in Somaliaanalyzes this campaign of clan cleansing against the historical background of a violent and divisive military dictatorship, in the contemporary context of regime collapse, and in relationship to the rampant militia warfare that followed in its wake.Clan Cleansing in Somaliaalso reflects on the relationship between history, truth, and postconflict reconstruction in Somalia. Documenting the organization and intent behind the campaign of clan cleansing, Lidwien Kapteijns traces the emergence of the hate narratives and code words that came to serve as rationales and triggers for the violence. However, it was not clans that killed, she insists, but people who killed in the name of clan. Kapteijns argues that the mutual forgiveness for which politicians often so lightly call is not a feasible proposition as long as the violent acts for which Somalis should forgive each other remain suppressed and undiscussed.Clan Cleansing in Somaliaestablishes that public acknowledgment of the ruinous turn to communal violence is indispensable to social and moral repair, and can provide a gateway for the critical memory work required from Somalis on all sides of this multifaceted conflict.
India's New Economic Policy Ahmed, Waquar; Kundu, Amitabh; Peet, Richard
2011, 20101004, 2010, 2010-09-13, 2010-10-04, Letnik:
26
eBook
Conventional interpretations of the New Economic Policy introduced in India in 1991 see this program of economic liberalization as transforming the Indian economy and leading to a substantial ...increase in the rate of India’s economic growth. But in a country like India, growth is not enough. Who benefits from the new growth regime, and can it significantly improve the conditions of livelihood for India’s 800 million people with incomes below $2.00 a day? This edited volume looks at international policy regimes and their national adoption under strategic conditions of economic crisis and coercion, and within longer-term structural changes in the power calculus of global capitalism. The contributors examine long-term growth tendencies, poverty and employment rates at the national level, regional level and local levels in India; the main growth centers; the areas and people left out; the advantages and deficiencies of the existing policy regime, and alternative economic policies for India. Bringing together the leading figures in the discussion on India’s economic policy, this volume is the authoritative critical study of India’s New Economic Policy.
Waquar Ahmed is a visiting assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Mount Holyoke College.
Amitabh Kundu is Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India..
Richard Peet is Professor of Geography at the Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, US.
Introduction Waquar Ahmed, Amitabh Kundu and Richard Peet 1. Neoliberalism, Inequality and Development Richard Peet 2. From Mixed Economy to Neo-liberalism: Class and Caste in India’s Policy Transition Waquar Ahmed 3. Urban System in India: Trends, Economic Base, Governance and a Perspective of Growth under Globalization Amitabh Kundu 4. New Urbanism, Neoliberalism and Urban Restructuring in Mumbai Swapna Banerjee-Guha 5. Economic Liberalization and Urban Governance: Impact on Inclusive Growth Shipra Maitra 6. The Right to Waste: Informal Sector Recyclers and Struggles for Social Justice in Post-Reform Urban India Bharti Chaturvadi and Vinay Gidwani 7. From Red Tape to Red Carpet? Violent Narratives of Neoliberalizing Ahmedabad Ipsita Chatterjee 8. Neoliberalism, Environmentalism and Urban Politics in Delhi Rohit Negi 9. Coping with Challenges to Food Security: Climate Change, Biofuels and GMOs Suman Sahai 10. Imperialism, Resources and Food Security, with Reference to the Indian Experience Utsa Patnaik 11. Special Economic Zones: Space, Law and Dispossession Rupal Oza 12. Thinking Militant Particularisms Politically: Resistances to Neo-liberalism in India Dave Featherstone 13. Radical Peasant Movements and Rural Distress in India: A Study of the Naxalite Movement Raju Das
"...A good read for anyone whose intellectual curiosity is piqued by neo-liberalism and its discontents."
- Sirisha C. Naidu, Economic and Political Weekly
Central Asia Rumer, Boris Z
2002, 20150415, 2015-04-15
eBook
The societies of Central Asia are besieged from within and without. The political elites - virtually unchanged despite the transition to independent statehood - battle radical Islamic movements and ...other oppositional threats that are continuously fueled by economic instability, corruption, environmental deterioration, and the collapse of social services. This survey of political, economic, and social development in Central Asia offers geopolitical context, unparalleled coverage, and analytical depth to our understanding of a region that appears to be rapidly spiraling into crisis.
An incisive analysis of the use of the press for propaganda purposes during conflicts, using the first Gulf War and the intervention in Kosovo as case studies.
As the contemporary analysis of ...propaganda during conflict has tended to focus considerably upon visual and instant media coverage, this book redresses the imbalance and contributes to the growing discourse on the role of the press in modern warfare.
Through an innovative comparative analysis of press treatment of the two conflicts it reveals the existence of five consistent propaganda themes: portrayal of the leader figure, portrayal of the enemy, military threat, threat to international stability and technological warfare. As these themes construct a fluid model for the analysis and understanding of propaganda content in the press during conflicts involving British forces, they also provide the background against which the author can discuss general issues regarding propaganda. Amongst the issues which have become increasingly relevant to both recent academic debate and popular culture, the author tackles the role of the journalist in war coverage, the place of the press in a news market dominated by ‘instant’ visual media and the effectiveness of propaganda in specific cultural and political context.
This book will appeal to advanced students and researchers in war studies, media studies/propaganda and psychology.
Kyrgyzstan is an interesting example of a relatively weak state, which for its brief period of independence has already ousted two presidents, experienced two revolutions, survived two interethnic ...conflicts and yet remained intact. This book explores this apparent paradox and argues that the schism between domestic and international dimensions of state and regime security is key to understanding the nature of Kyrgyz politics. The book shows how the foreign policy links to the Manas Air Base, used by the US military and essential for supplying their forces in Afghanistan, the economic arrangements necessary for sustaining the base, both inside and outside Kyrgyzstan, and the myriad of different actors involved in all this, combined to overshadow points of friction to ensure stable continuance of the status quo. Overall, the book shows how broad geopolitical forces and complex local factors together have a huge impact on the formation of Kyrgyz foreign policy.
Kemel Toktomushev is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Public Policy and Administration, University of Central Asia.
Introduction
1. One world, rival theories
2. Foreign policy and regime security of weak states
3. Development of Kyrgyz foreign policy
4. Military security and foreign policy
5. Manas Air Base
Conclusion
