1 Political Science 459 Dr. Benjamin Bricker Spring 2014 Office: Faner Hall 3167 MWF 12-12:50p Office Hours: WF: 1-2p, Faner 2365 TR: 9:30-11:30a Email: brickeb@siu.edu Politics of Russia and the Post-Soviet States This course examines political developments in Russia and the other fourteen Soviet successor states that gained (or regained) independence following the demise of the Soviet Union. The first part of the course provides a historical overview that surveys the entire time period from 1917 to 1991. Primary focus is placed on the unique mixture of Soviet legacies of communist political institutions, state socialist economic policies, and ethnofederalism. Much of the literature on the Soviet period is Moscow-centered. We will spend some time, however, investigating how the policies of the central government played out in the various Soviet republics. After providing this historical overview, post-soviet political developments will be analyzed and individual cases and institutions compared. Each week s readings introduce theoretical questions and broader issues in comparative politics that will help to structure our discussion. No previous work in the region is required, although having had courses on comparative politics will be helpful. Overall, students will be given the analytic tools necessary to compare political developments in the former Soviet Union and beyond. Please note that a portion of each week will be devoted to current news and events in Russia and the post-soviet states. Overall, this is a very exciting time to be studying Russia and the post-soviet states, and we will definitely reserve time to discuss developing events within the region. Course Requirements: You will be evaluated based on your performance on class participation, mid-term and final exams, and a research paper (see following). Grading: Mid-term 25% Due March 7 at the beginning of class Final 25% Due May 9 at 3PM (Faner 3167) Paper proposal 5% Due March 19 at the beginning of class Paper 25% Due May 2 at the beginning of class Discussion participation 20% Comparative Research Paper: You are asked to write a research paper (10 pages for undergraduates, 15 for graduate students) that compares one political development or public policy in two countries, at least one of which should be a former Soviet republic. The topic area of your comparative study and the choice of countries remain flexible. This large project will be broken up into smaller steps: You will need to write a 2 to 3 page proposal by March 19 th, which includes your topic, countries of study, tentative argument and annotated
2 bibliography. I will provide feedback on your proposal. The final draft of your paper will be due on Friday, May 2 nd. We will work in peer-review teams to revise, edit and polish each other s work. You will improve each draft of the research paper based on peer comments and those of the instructor. Required Books (Available for purchase at the SIU Bookstore): Alena Ledeneva. 2006. How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices that Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press). Ronald G. Suny. 2011. The Soviet Experiment, 2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Course Schedule: Please note I reserve the right to modify the syllabus as necessary. *To be uploaded to on-line course reserves (www.lib.siu.edu). Week 1: Introduction: The Formation of the Soviet Union and Nationalities Policy January 13 Introduction January 15-17 The Formation of the Soviet Union and Soviet Nationalities Policy *Richard Pipes, Red Empire, in Russia under the Bolshevik Regime (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993), pp. 141-65. *Rogers Brubaker, Nationhood and the national question in the Soviet Union and its successor states: an institutionalist account, in Nationalism Reframed: Nationhood and the national question in the New Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), ONLY pp. 23-40. Suny, Chapter 2, The Double Revolution, pp. 47-67. Week 2: Lenin and Stalin. January 20 Martin Luther King Day Holiday January 22-24 Soviet Political Institutions under Lenin and Stalin Suny, Chapter 5, The Evolution of the Dictatorship, pp. 139-155, and Chapter 9, The Stalin Revolution, pp. 235-250. *Philip Roeder, Creating the Constitution of Bolshevism, 1917-1953, in Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 41-65. Week 3 January 27 State Socialist Economic Institutions *Richard Ericson, "The Classical Soviet-Type Economy: Nature of the System and Implications for Reform," Journal of Economic Perspectives 5/4, 1991, pp. 11-27. January 29 Discussion: What does the GULAG tell us about the Soviet political system? *Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The History of Our Sewage Disposal System, in The Gulag Archipelago, vol. 1 (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2007 [1976]), pp. 24-92.
3 January 31 Discussion: Soviet System Expands Eastern Europe Anne Applebaum. 2012. Iron Curtain. Excerpts. Vaclav Havel. The Power of the Powerless. Week 4: The Soviet Union after Stalin: Thaw and Stagnation. Feb 3: Film Burnt by the Sun February 5, 7 Suny, chapter 18, The Paradoxes of Brezhnev s Long Reign. *Philip Roeder, Reciprocal Accountability, 1953-1986, in Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 66-93. *Janos Kornai, Shortage and Inflation: The Phenomena, pp. 228-61; and Shortage and Inflation: The Causes, ONLY pp. 280-301; in The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992), pp. 228-301. Week 5: The End of the Regime. February 10, 12 Why 1991? Political, Economic and Ethnic Explanations for the Soviet Collapse *Philip Roeder, The Failure of Constitutional Reform, 1987-1991, in Red Sunset: The Failure of Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), pp. 210-45, *Moshe Lewin, The Gorbachev Phenomenon: A Historical Interpretation (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), pp. vii-xii, 1-9 and 145-53. Steven Cohen. 2004. Was the Soviet System Reformable? Slavic Review. *Ken Jowitt, The Leninist Legacy, in Ivo Banac, Eastern Europe in Revolution (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 131-67. *Jon Elster, The Necessity and Impossibility of Simultaneous Economic and Political Reform, in Douglas Greenberg et al., Constitutionalism and Democracy: Transitions in the Contemporary World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 267-74. February 14 Begin Transitions from Communism. Week 6: Transitions from Communism February 17 Pedro Magalhaes, 1999. The Politics of Judicial Reform in Eastern Europe. Comparative Politics. Jon Elster. 1995. Forces and Mechanisms in the Constitution-Making Process. Duke LJ. February 19 Discussion: Transition or Continuity? *Mitchell Orenstein, Stephen Bloom and Nicole Lindstrom, A Fourth Dimension of Transition, in Orenstein, Bloom and Lindstrom, eds., Transnational Actors in Central and East European Transitions (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press, 2008), pp. 1-18. Ledeneva, Why are Informal Practices Still Prevalent in Russia? pp. 10-27.
4 February 21 Introduction to Democratization (Lecture) Week 7: Democratization, Democratic Consolidation February 24 Discussion: Democratization in the Post-Soviet States *Valerie Bunce, Rethinking Recent Democratization: Lessons from the Post-Communist Experience, World Politics, 2003, pp. 167-92. *M. Steven Fish, The Dynamics of Democratic Erosion, in Anderson et al., Postcommunism and the Theory of Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 54-95. February 26 Discussion: Electoral Fraud Joshua Tucker. 2007. Enough! Electoral Fraud, Collective Action Problems, and Post- Communist Colored Revolutions. Perspectives on Politics. 535-551. Susan Hyde. 2007. The Observer Effect in International Politics: Evidence from a Natural Experiment. World Politics. M. Steven Fish. 2004. Symptoms of the Failure of Democracy (ch. 3). Democracy Derailed in Russia. Cambridge University Press. February 28 Discussion: Corruption. (and finish electoral fraud) Margit Tavits. 2010. Why Do People Engage in Corruption? The Case of Estonia. Social Forces. Week 8 March 3 The Emergence of Presidential Government in Russia. March 5 Review March 7 Midterm (in class) Week 9: March 10, 12, 14 Spring Break Week 10: Transformation to a Market Economy: Post-Soviet Economic Reform March 17 *Åslund, Anders, How Capitalism was Built: The Transformation of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2007, Introduction, pp. 1-10. Chapter 2, Shock Therapy versus Gradualism, pp. 29-56, Chapter 10, The Role of Oligarchs, pp. 256-280. March 19 Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, The Politics of Economic Reform in Russia, in Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2000), pp. 1-20.
5 Hellman, Joel S. 1998. Winner s Take All: The Politics of Partial Reform in Postcommunist Transitions. World Politics 50 (January): 203-234. March 21 Discussion: Post-Soviet Business Practices Ledeneva, Tenevoi Barter: Shadow Barter, Barter Chains, and Nonmonetary Markets, and Dvoinaia Bukhgalteriia: Double Accountancy and Financial Scheming, pp. 115-41; 142-63. Week 11 Post 1991: The Development of the Rule of Law and the Judiciary March 24 Finish Post-Soviet Business Practices. March 26, 28 Discussion: The Development of the Rule of Law and the Judiciary Timothy Frye 2004. Credible Commitments and Property Rights: Evidence from Russia. American Political Science Review. Timothy Frye, 2002. The Two Faces of Russian Courts. Eastern European Constitutional Review. Financial Times, December 17, 2013. Lee Epstein, Jack Knight, and Olga Shvetsova. 2001. The Role of Constitutional Courts in the Establishment and Maintenance of Democratic Systems of Government. Law & Society Review Ledeneva, Chapter 7. Post-Soviet Tolchaki, pp. 166-188. Week 12 Political Parties, Party Systems and Electoral Behavior March 31: Lecture April 2, 4 Discussion: The Nature of Parties and Party Systems *Stephen Bloom, The 2010 Latvian Parliamentary Elections, Electoral Studies, 2011, pp. 379-83. Robert G. Moser. 1999. Electoral Systems and the Number of Parties in Post-Communist Europe. World Politics. Margit Tavits. 2013. Post-Communist Democracies and Party Organization. Cambridge University Press. Ch. 2 Margit Tavits and Natalia Letki. 2009. When Left is Right: Party Ideology and Policy in Post-Communist Europe. American Political Science Review. Valdimir Gelman. 2008. Party Politics in Russia: From Competition to Hierarchy. Europe- Asia Studies. Nikolay Petrov. Convergence in Post-Soviet Political Systems?: A Comparative Analysis of Russian, Kazakh, and Ukrainian Parliamentary Elections. Week 13 Russian Campaigns April 7 Ledeneva, Chernyi Piar: Manipulative Campaigning and the Workings of Russian Democracy, pp. 28-57. April 9 and 11 No Class! MPSA conference.
6 Week 14 Final Topics: The Russian Presidency Today & Democratic Backsliding in Russia (April 14, 16, 18) *Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner-Weiss, The Myth of the Authoritarian Model: How Putin s Crackdown Holds Russia Back, Foreign Policy 87, 2008, pp. 68-80. *David Remnick, Letter from Moscow: The Civil Archipelago, New Yorker, December 19 &26, pp. 95-108. Paul Chaisty. 2005. Majority Control and Executive Dominance: Parliament-President Relations in Putin s Russia. 253-67. Daniel Treisman. 2007. Putin s Silovarchs. Orbis. *Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, A Normal Country? Russia After Communism, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2005, pp. 151-74. *Anders Åslund, Conclusions: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed in Russia s Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and Democracy Failed (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2007), pp. 277-307. Week 15: The Politics of Multiethnicity (April 21, 13, 25) *Charles King, "The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia's Unrecognized States," in Alina Mungiu-Pippidi and Ivan Kratsev, eds., Nationalism after Communism: Lessons Learned (Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004), pp. 147-78. *Valery Tishkov, Religion in the Chechen Conflict, in Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 164-79. Charles King and Rajan Menon. 2010. Prisoners of the Caucasus. Foreign Affairs. *Stephen Bloom, Does a nationalist card make for a weak hand? Economic decline and shared pain, Political Research Quarterly. Anna Politkovskaya. 2002. Chechnya: A Dirty War. In Politics in Russia, pp. 418-433. Anatol Lieven. 1999. Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power. Excerpts. Plus: Peer group work. Week 16: April 28, 30, May 2: Geopolitics and The Color Revolutions *Peter Duncan, Westernism, Eurasianism and Pragmatism: The Foreign Policies of the Post-Soviet States, 1991-2001, in Wendy Slater and Andrew Wilson, eds., The Legacy of the Soviet Union (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 228-53. Michael McFaul, 2007. Ukraine Imports Democracy. World Politics. *Stephen Shulman and Stephen Bloom, The Legitimacy of Foreign Intervention in Elections: The Ukrainian Response, Review of International Studies. Theodor Tudoroiu. 2007. Rose, Orange, and Tulip: The Failed Post-Soviet Revolutions. Communist and Post-Communist Studies. Final Exam: Wednesday, May 7, 12:50-2:50p.m.