Developments in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics

Developments in Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics offers a comprehensively revised and updated edition of the critically acclaimed Developments in Soviet Politics. Rewritten since the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, this timely edition focuses on the question of defining and understanding post-Soviet politics. The contributors analyze key institutions and policy processes in the new political systems emerging after Gorbachev’s resignation and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Various topics discussed include changing leadership, party and state institutions, patterns of participation, the legal system, and social, economic, and foreign policymaking. This volume highlights the problems of governability at all levels posed by the development of mass politics - especially in its ethnic and nationalist forms - and concludes by presenting contrasting views on the future of the post-Soviet system and how it can be best understood.