Post-Soviet Power
State-led Development and Russia's Marketization

Examines the transformation of the Russian electricity system during post-Soviet marketization, arguing for a view of economic and political development as mutually constitutive.

Susanne A. Wengle (Author)

9781107420922, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 November 2015

310 pages, 17 b/w illus. 1 map 16 tables
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.45 kg

'Most social scientists have understood the post-Soviet Russian state as an arena for the interplay of interests, focusing on corruption or struggles among powerful groups. Susanne Wengle's remarkable study of electricity sector transformation advances a meticulously researched, powerfully argued, and deeply persuasive counterclaim: federal and regional efforts to promote broad social and developmental aims are essential to understanding the political economy of post-socialism. Wengle's sophisticated approach to enduring conceptual quandaries - such as the interplay of ideas and interests, and the mutually constitutive relationship of politics and the economy - merits the attention of scholars interested in the political economy of reform more broadly, as they greatly enrich our toolkit for studying contemporary forms of state-led development around the world.' Stephen J. Collier, The New School for Social Research

Post-Soviet Power tells the story of the Russian electricity system and examines the politics of its transformation from a ministry to a market. Susanne A. Wengle shifts our focus away from what has been at the center of post-Soviet political economy - corruption and the lack of structural reforms - to draw attention to political struggles to establish a state with the ability to govern the economy. She highlights the importance of hands-on economic planning by authorities - post-Soviet developmentalism - and details the market mechanisms that have been created. This book argues that these observations urge us to think of economies and political authority as mutually constitutive, in Russia and beyond. Whereas political science often thinks of market arrangements resulting from political institutions, Russia's marketization demonstrates that political status is also produced by the market arrangements that actors create. Taking this reflexivity seriously suggests a view of economies and markets as constructed and contingent entities.

Introduction: Russia's political marketization
Part I: 1. From ministry to market
2. Power politics
3. Regionally patterned pacts and the political life of things
Part II: 4. Privatization - competing claims and new owners
5. Liberalization - the price of power
6. Expertise - engineers versus managers
Conclusion: development as contingent transformations.

Subject Areas: Political economy [KCP], Political control & freedoms [JPV], Regional government [JPR], Central government [JPQ], Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP]