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Stubborn Structures

Bálint Magyar

Stubborn Structures

Reconceptualizing Post-Communist Regimes

The editor of this book has brought together contributions designed to capture the essence of post-communist politics in East-Central Europe and Eurasia. Rather than on the surface structures of nominal democracies, the nineteen essays focus on the informal, often intentionally hidden, disguised and illicit understandings and arrangements that penetrate formal institutions. These phenomena often escape even the best-trained outside observers, familiar with the concepts of established democracies. Contributors to this book share the view that understanding post-communist politics is best served by a framework that builds from the ground up, proceeding from a fundamental social context. The book aims at facilitating a lexical convergence; in the absence of a robust vocabulary for describing and discussing these often highly complex informal phenomena, the authors wish to advance a new terminology of post-communist regimes. Instead of a finite dictionary, a kind of conceptual cornucopia is offered. The resulting variety reflects a larger harmony of purpose that can significantly expand the understanding the “real politics” of post-communist regimes. Countries analyzed from a variety of aspects, comparatively or as single case studies, include Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine.
Author

Bálint Magyar

Bálint Magyar is Research Fellow at CEU Democracy Institute, working on the subject of patronalism in post-communist countries.

He was a member of the Hungarian Parliament (1990-2010). As a Minister of Education (1996-1998; 2002-2006) he initiated and carried out reforms in public and higher education.

Title
Stubborn Structures
Subtitle
Reconceptualizing Post-Communist Regimes
Author
Price
€ 105,95 excl. VAT
ISBN
9789633862148
Format
Paperback
Number of pages
712
Language
English
Publication date
Dimensions
15.9 x 23.4 cm
Categories
Legal Studies
Political Science
Discipline
Social and Political Sciences
Imprint
Also available as
eBook PDF - € 105,99
Table of Contents
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List of Figures
List of Tables
Editor’s Preface

PART I. Conceptual Frameworks
Freeing Post-Soviet Regimes from the Procrustean Bed of Democracy Theory
Henry E. Hale
The System Paradigm Revisited: Clarification and Additions in the Light Of Experiences in the Post-Communist Region
János Kornai
Neopatrimonialism in Post-Soviet Eurasia
Oleksandr Fisun
Towards a Terminology for Post-communist Regimes
Bálint Magyar

PART II. Actors of Power
Putin’s Neo-Nomenklatura System and its Evolution
Nikolay Petrov
Republic of Clans: The Evolution of the Ukrainian Political System
Mikhail Minakov
Is Belarus a Classic Post-Communist Mafia State?
Uladzimir Rouda
The Romanian Patronal System of Public Corruption
László Nándor Magyari

PART III. Techniques and Tools
The Russian Party System
Zoltán Sz. Bíró
The Belarusian Non-Party Political System: Government, Trust and Institutions, 1990–2015
Andrei Kazakevich
Illiberal State Censorship: A Must-have Accessory for Any Mafia State
Miklós Haraszti
Disarming Public Protests in Russia: Transforming Public Goods into Private Goods
Dumitru Minzarari:

PART IV. Wealth and Ownership
The Institution of Power and Ownership in the Former U.S.S.R: Origin, Diversity of Forms, and Influence on Transformation Processes
Andrey Ryabov
Russia’s Network State and Reiderstvo Practices: The Roots to Weak Property Rights Protection after the post-Communist Transition
Ilja Viktorov
From Free Market Corruption Risk to the Certainty of a State-Run Criminal Organization (using Hungary as an example)
Bálint Magyar

PART V. Contrasts and Connections
Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine as Post-Soviet Rent-Seeking Regimes
Alexei Pikulik
The Structure of Corruption: A Systemic Analysis
Sarah Chayes
The New East European Patronal States and the Rule-of-Law
Kálmán Mizsei
Parallel System Narratives—Polish and Hungarian Regime Formations Compared
Bálint Magyar

List of Contributors
Index
Appendix

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