Reviews for Federalism and Democratization in Post-Communist Russia

The average rating for Federalism and Democratization in Post-Communist Russia based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-03-21 00:00:00 Petter Steen Russia is back in the headlines and on the world stage. This is a good book to start to know why and how. Stocked with good research, a strength of this book is that it was written by a career political scientist. Professor Daniel Treisman uses experience from years of studying Russia, as well as political economy, comparative politics and statistics, to come up with a balanced take on contemporary Russia. The reader will be informed of the decline and fall of the Soviet Union, the age of Boris Yeltsin, the war in Chechnya, Russia's economy and society in the 1990s, and the advent of Putin and Medvedev, then Putin again. Since it was published in 2011, the book does not cover Putin's adventurous meddling in Ukraine. That would be a good addendum if a later edition of the book will be published.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-01-05 00:00:00 Jacqueline Harrison This was the best political science/history book that I've read in a long time. This book ranges from the rise of Gorbachev and the fall of the Soviet Union to the rise and reign of Putin. Daniel Treisman's mastery of the subject is absolute, and he employs it to bust several prominent narratives about contemporary Russia: 1) that the USSR's collapse in the 1980s was inevitable (I already disagreed with this narrative); 2) that Gorbachev was the responsible leader, and Yeltsin a populist drunk (I fully believed this); 3) that Russia's growth in the '00s was fuelled mainly by oil prices and that Putin did little to reform the country (I fully believed this too); 4) that the transition from communism to market capitalism was grossly mishandled (it wasn't flawless, but the government was usually choosing between equally bad options); 5) that "the Oligarchs" ran the country for several years until Putin cracked down (their influence seems to have been grossly over-exaggerated). And much more besides. Treisman is a terrific writer as well -- authoritative and engaging. I wish more books were this well research and this well written.