When Ideas Fail: Economic Thought, the Failure of Transition and the Rise of Institutional Instability in Post-Soviet Russia

In the history of Russian economic ideas, a peculiar mix of anthropocentrism and holism provided fertile breeding ground for patterns of thought that were in potential conflict with the market. These patterns, did not render the emergence of capitalism in Russia impossible. But they entailed a deep intellectual division between adherents and opponents of Russia’s capitalist transformation that made Russia’s social evolution unstable and vulnerable to external shocks. This study offers an ideational explanation of Russia’s relative failure to establish a functioning market economy and thus sets up a new and original perspective for discussion. In post-Soviet Russia, a clash between imported foreground ideas and deep domestic background ideas has led to an ideational division among the elite of the country. Within economic science, this led to the emergence of two thought collectives, (in the sense of Ludvik Fleck), with entirely different understandings of social reality. This ideational division translated into incoherent policy measures, the emergence of institutional hybrids and thus, all in all, into institutional instability. Empirically, the book is based on a systematic, qualitative analysis of the writings of Soviet/Russian economists between 1987 and 2012. This groundbreaking book makes an important contribution to Central Eastern and Eastern European area studies and to the current debate on ideas and institutions in the social sciences.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 The Role of Ideas in Great Transformations Transition as functional differentiation Constructivist institutionalism and the structure/agency-problem What is special about Russia What is special about Russia I: Lack of liberal underground discourses What is specific about Russia II: The struggle between two thought collectives What is Specific about Russia III: Deep ideational backgrounds 3 The Legacy of the Brezhnev Period: 1971-1986 Why deal with the Brezhnev period? Self-organization versus mobilization The economics of developed socialism The origins of the concept The economic mechanism Base and superstructure Commodity-money relations Conclusion 4 Cracking the Protective Belt: 1987-1992 Back to the 1960s and taking it further What was Soviet ideology? Perestroika and the Soviet telos Early debates in Voprosy ekonomiki, and the new textbook on political economy The inflow of Western liberal ideas The MEiMO debate on Western reforms The Debates in the general interest press The decline of Soviet ideology Paradigm shift or continuity? 5 Towards a Precarious Consensus: 1993-1998 Western textbooks, Russian reality The intellectual background to shock therapy Post-industrial society and the comeback of slavophile ideas Regulation, economic security, and the "Russian economic school" The rise of Russian institutionalism A new consensus? 6 In Search of a "Russian Way": 1999-2006 Taking stock of post-socialist reforms The discussion about the stabilization fund The nationalist turn Reappraisal of the planned economy Indicative planning and mobilisation versus structural reforms Liberal Reactions to increasing state intereference Economics or political economy? Russian economic science on the retreat from international discourse 7 A New Transition Debate: 2007-2012 2007 as a turning point Conflicting concepts of innovation and modernization Modernization and innovation in economics and in sociology The "coalitions for modernization" debate Discussions within the liberal camp The position of the gosudarstvenniki The political dimension of the debate Conservative modernization versus innovation Innovation and modernization in presidential speeches A "fear of perestroika"? 8 Conclusion Biographical Appendix References