Loose Federation in a Dysfunctional State: Disintegration or Functionality of the Russian Federation?
Herd, Graeme P. "Russia: Systemic Transformation or Federal Collapse?" Journal of Peace Research, vol. 36, no.3, 1999, pp.259-269
Alexseev, Mikhail A. "Decentralization Versus State Collapse: Explaining Russia's Endurance" Journal of Peace Research, vol.38, no.1, 2001, pp.101-106
Herd, Graeme P. "Russia And The Politics of 'Putinism'" Journal of Peace Research, vol.38, no.1, 2001, pp.109-112
The Russian Federation featured high on Western policy-makers' agenda, as turbulent financial and economic events followed the demise of Communism. With the recent financial 'meltdown' of 1998 overcome, should one expect the Federation's imminent collapse, or indulge in optimism at its survival to this date? There appears to be reason for both.
Writing in 1999, Graeme P. Herd predicts imminent disintegration of the Russian Federation. Russia's economy and politics were badly shaken by the financial and monetary 'meltdown' in August of the previous year. Budgetary federalism collapsed, Yeltsin's charismatic figure was gone, his patronage networks undermined. The Duma left to rule had little political authority. In the midst of a political vacuum and an economic crisis, "no new mechanisms [were] being developed to maintain the balance of power within the federation" (Herd, 1999, p260). The August crisis had acted as a catalyst to decentralization - an informal process begun in the years before 1998. He traces the loose nature of the center-periphery relationship in federal Russia to the collapse of Communism: economic turmoil followed, threatening regions' economic survival. Self-reliance was urged onto those previously subject to centralized planning. They began to be run by local elites and interest groups. Russia's regions increasingly asserted political, administrative and economic independence during the 1990s [1]. When the central government proved helpless against the 'meltdown' in 1998, crisis management fell once again to regional governors, further
Alexseev, Mikhail A. "Decentralization Versus State Collapse: Explaining Russia's Endurance" Journal of Peace Research, vol.38, no.1, 2001, pp.101-106
Herd, Graeme P. "Russia And The Politics of 'Putinism'" Journal of Peace Research, vol.38, no.1, 2001, pp.109-112
The Russian Federation featured high on Western policy-makers' agenda, as turbulent financial and economic events followed the demise of Communism. With the recent financial 'meltdown' of 1998 overcome, should one expect the Federation's imminent collapse, or indulge in optimism at its survival to this date? There appears to be reason for both.
Writing in 1999, Graeme P. Herd predicts imminent disintegration of the Russian Federation. Russia's economy and politics were badly shaken by the financial and monetary 'meltdown' in August of the previous year. Budgetary federalism collapsed, Yeltsin's charismatic figure was gone, his patronage networks undermined. The Duma left to rule had little political authority. In the midst of a political vacuum and an economic crisis, "no new mechanisms [were] being developed to maintain the balance of power within the federation" (Herd, 1999, p260). The August crisis had acted as a catalyst to decentralization - an informal process begun in the years before 1998. He traces the loose nature of the center-periphery relationship in federal Russia to the collapse of Communism: economic turmoil followed, threatening regions' economic survival. Self-reliance was urged onto those previously subject to centralized planning. They began to be run by local elites and interest groups. Russia's regions increasingly asserted political, administrative and economic independence during the 1990s [1]. When the central government proved helpless against the 'meltdown' in 1998, crisis management fell once again to regional governors, further