How Russia Is Not Ruled: Reflections on Russian Political Development

by Allen C. Lynch

As Russia tries to establish the foundations of a stable and productive market-based economic system, it must determine the importance of the state to its prospects. What kind of political order corresponds to the challenges that Russia faces in the post-Soviet period? This analysis argues that geography matters a great deal and the state remains central in compensating for the austere implications of economic geography for Russia's economic prospects under market circumstances.

Genres: Russia

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2005

Reviews

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lynch makes the case that Russia has a next to impossible task in advancing into the modern economic and political ranks of its Western rivals. Both Russia's imperial and totalitarian legacies have effectively destroyed, or prevented, the creation of a middle class and civil society. Without a strong tradition of rule of law, which in turn creates the conditions for individual property rights, there can be no firm or predictable basis for a strong, modern economy. Monarchical, dictatorial, and authoritarian governments also undermine democratic and capitalist principles that are the bedrock of modern nations wishing to provide the maximum amount of happiness for its individuals. Russia's vast geographic space introduces inefficient factors of production, which in turns leads to further thinning of already meager government subsidies to faraway regions such as Siberia. Russia is bordered by ethnically and religiously diverse populations that threaten border security. Lynch painstakingly documents the demographic factors holding Russia back from development and the impossibility of rectifying those challenges with sparsely filled government coffers. In short, Russia has a next to impossible summit to climb if it is to modernize and compete with what it perceives as its rivals. As the book is limited to statistics from before 2004, some caution should be noted in using these numbers to make judgments about Russia's economic, political, military, and demographic conditions today; however, the trends Lynch notes and the predictions he makes concerning the difficulties Russia faces in modernizing seem to be born out by present conditions in Russia. While it is true that Russia has made vast improvements in modernizing its military, it is also true that Russia's increasing turn to authoritarianism undergirded by a presidency with virtually no checks on its powers makes political and economic reform unlikely. Although much of Lynch's data is dated, his predictions for Russia's continual devolution - despite all appearances of military resurgence as witnessed in Syria, Ukraine, and Crimea - are sound.