COMPARING POST SOVIET LEGISLATURES Format: Paperback

Ostrow (political science, Benedictine university) develops a comparative institutional framework to explain marked differences in behavior across three post-Soviet legislatures: the Russian Supreme Soviet, the Russian State Duma, and the Estonian legislature. He argues that differences in their ability to manage political conflict resulted from the design of the legislatures most significantly, the matter of whether and how they include parties or partisan factors. The author was present at many of the committee hearings and legislative sessions he describes; he also interviewed numerous committee members. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Joel M. Ostrow is an assistant professor of political science at Benedictine University. He is the author of several articles in such journals as Europe-Asia Studies and Communist and Post-Communist Studies.