Russia: The Challenges of Transformation

The contributions range from scholarly analyses to memoirs of a former British diplomat to several analytical documents (translated from Russian) that provide valuable information on important aspects of Russian life (economy, health care, education, relations with the neighbors, etc.) but differ from the theoretically-grounded explorations, typical of Western social science. According to him, Russia serves a "classic example of a hybrid regime combining democratic and authoritarian features," or more precisely, the "dual state," in which the normative-constitutional order coexists with the informal arrangements of the administrative regime, populated by various bureaucratic factions.