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

Zweynert, Joachim

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 113855927X ISBN 13 : 9781138559271

Editeur : Routledge, 2017

Synopsis

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.

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Joachim Zweynert is Professor of International Political Economy at Witten/ Herdecke University, Germany. He studied economics and political science at Hamburg University, Germany.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Routledge
• Date d'édition: 2017
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 113855927X
• ISBN 13: 9781138559271
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 154
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible