Democracy from Scratch - Softcover

Fish, M. Steven

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691029148 ISBN 13: 9780691029146

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This book presents a fresh view of Russian political change in the Gorbachev and early post-Soviet periods not by examining perestroika and glasnost in and of themselves, but by investigating the autonomous political organizations that responded to liberalization. Extensive study of these political groups, in Moscow and several provincial cities, has led M. Steven Fish to conclude that they were shaped to a far greater degree by the nature of the Soviet state than by socioeconomic modernization, political culture, native psychology, or Russian historical tradition. Fish's statist theory of societal change in Russia yields a powerful explanation of why Russia's new political society differs radically not only from the "totalized," sub-jugated country of the pre-1985 period but also from the "civil societies" found in the West and in many developing countries. In addition, the author shows how the legacy of the Soviet experience continues to influence the development--arguably the underdevelopment--of representative political institutions in post-Soviet Russia, making the establishment of stable democracy unlikely in the near term.


This book proposes a novel and theoretically sophisticated way to study Russian politics. It offers a rigorous approach to understanding social movements, political party formation, regime change, and democratization in general. While focusing primarily on a single country, it is vigorously comparative at the same time.

About this title

About the Author

M. Steven Fish is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

From the Back Cover

"[Democracy from Scratch] will doubtless become a standard in the field.. . . Among its fine attributes are its solid grounding in comparative political theory, its conceptual originality, its richness of information, and the sound interpretations that prevade it."--Michael Urban, University of California, Santa Cruz

Reviews

An original and provocative study.... Drawing on his scrupulous analysis of groupformation in a number of Russian cities, ... Fish re evaluates received views about the Soviet system.

A smart book that speaks to the concerns not only of area specialists but to students of democratic transition around the world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691029148
• ISBN 13: 9780691029146
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 312