Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders

This book examines the strategies employed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to build leadership authority.

George W. Breslauer (Author)

9780521892445, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 18 March 2002

348 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.47 kg

'… a compelling analysis …'. Slavonica

Gorbachev and Yeltsin as Leaders examines the strategies employed by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin to build leadership authority. Political leaders often use a combination of coercion, material reward, and persuasion, but Professor Breslauer focuses on the power of ideas, as leaders use them to mobilize support and to craft an image as effective problem solvers, indispensable consensus builders, and symbols of national unity. In Khrushchev and Brezhnev as Leaders: Building Authority in Soviet Politics (1982), he documented Khrushchev's and Brezhnev's domestic policy strategies; this book handles domestic and foreign policies. All chapters compare Gorbachev and Yeltsin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, mostly analyzing the changes in policy, the strategies, and the political dilemmas that are common to all four administrations. The book discusses the ways in which authority building was affected by political constraints unique to each of the stages.

1. Leadership strategies after Stalin
2. Gorbachev and Yeltsin: personalities and beliefs
3. The rise of Gorbachev
4. Gorbachev ascendant
5. Gorbachev on the political defensive
6. Yeltsin versus Gorbachev
7. Yeltsin ascendant
8. Yeltsin on the political defensive
9. Yeltsin lashes out: the invasion of Chechnya (December, 1994)
10. Yeltsin's many last hurrahs
11. Explaining leaders' choices, 1985–99
12. Criteria for the evaluation of transformational leaders
13. Evaluating Gorbachev as leader
14. Evaluating Yeltsin as leader.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Regional studies [GTB]