The Politics of Inequality in Russia

Description

This book investigates the relationship between the character of political regimes in Russia's subnational regions and the structure of earnings and income. Based on extensive data from Russian official sources and surveys conducted by the World Bank, the book shows that income inequality is higher in more pluralistic regions. It argues that the relationship between firms and government differs between more democratic and more authoritarian regional regimes. In more democratic regions, business firms and government have more cooperative relations, restraining the power of government over business and encouraging business to invest more, pay more and report more of their wages. Average wages are higher in more democratic regions and poverty is lower, but wage and income inequality are also higher. The book argues that the rising inequality in postcommunist Russia reflects the inability of a weak state to carry out a redistributive social policy.

Thomas F. Remington is Goodrich C. White Professor of Political Science at Emory University. He has taught at Emory since 1978. He is author of numerous books and articles, including The Russian Parliament: Institutional Evolution in a Transitional Regime, 1989-1999; The Politics of Institutional Choice: Formation of the Russian State Duma (co-authored with Steven S. Smith); Parliaments in Transition; The Truth of Authority: Ideology and Communication in the Soviet Union; Building Socialism in Bolshevik Russia; and a textbook on Russian politics, Politics in Russia. Remington is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research and of the Board of Directors of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. He is the Advisor for Russia Workshops for the East-West Parliamentary Practice Project, based in Amsterdam, and he has planned and directed a series of workshops for parliamentarians in a number of cities in Russia since 1993. His research focuses on the development of political institutions in postcommunist Russia, including parliamentary politics, legislative-executive relations, and labor market and social welfare institutions. In addition to courses dealing with Russian political development, he teaches courses in comparative political institutions and comparative political and economic reform.

'Thomas Remington has written an ingenious book on the relationship between economic inequality and democracy, and produced what may be the best book on the political economy of Russia that we have.' Political Studies