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The article aimed to explain changes of agenda of the Russian modernization in the late twentieth century through the impact of generation changes. While in 1985-1991 the generation of "sixtiers" pursuit their ideational priorities of political liberalization but paid less attention to economic reforms, in 1991-1998 the generation of "seventiers" focused on economic reforms rather than on democratization due to its ideational priorities ; Non peer reviewed

Studies of political elites have emerged rapidly in post-Communist Russia. This state-of-theart article reflects on various developments in the field, analyzes research projects and frameworks, and focuses on two major issues of elite research: stratification studies and transition studies. The formation of an academic community in this field is close to completion. Russian scholars commonly accept different theoretical and methodological approaches from those employed by Western social scientists, but the lack of value-free work and comparative studies makes Russian studies of political elites somewhat isolated from the mainstream of social research.

Reexamining Economic and Political Reforms in Russia, 1985-2000: Generations, Ideas, and Changes analyzes the impact of generational changes and ideational changes on major political and economic reforms conducted in Russia during the late twentieth century.

"In analyzing regime transition as an open-ended process, the paradigmatic approach of the paper provides an alternative to teleological schemes of the 'transition to democracy'. The process of regime transition, regardless of the regime type itself, includes several stages, such as the breakdown of the ancient regime, the uncertainty of the political regime, and the Installation of the new regime. The key characteristics of the uncertainty stage are the uncertain position of actors and the institution-free environment. The completion of this stage is the installation of the new regime. Looking at some of Russia's regions as case studies of regime transition, the paper aims at understanding scenarios of outcomes of uncertainty and their impact an new political regimes. The "winner takes all" scenario of outcome of uncertainty. is likely to enhance the power monopoly of the dominant actor and the supremacy of informal institutions. The consequences of this scenario are the emergence of new political regimes with numerous aspects of authoritarian rule. These regimes could be relatively stable. The "elite settlement" scenario of outcome of uncertainty generally includes the sharing of powers between dominant and subordinate actors in order to limit public political contestation and establish the supremacy of informal, rather than formal, institutions. These regimes are fragile and dependent an changes in the political Situation. The 'struggle over the rules' scenario of outcome of uncertainty is likely to provide an institutional framework as a precondition to democratization in the sense of horizontal accountability through the institutional limitation an assertions of power. Until the institutionalization of the new regime, it still remains fragile. Democracy is not emerging from regime transition by default. Only if political competition among actors within the framework of formal institutions continues to develop, transitions to democracy may occur as a contingent outcome of conflict, or as the 'lesser evil' for the actors." (author's abstract)

Vom Ende der achtziger bis in die Mitte der neunziger Jahre unterlagen die regionalen Organe der Staatsgewalt in Rußland einschneidenden Veränderungen. Diese Veränderungen, sowohl auf normativ-rechtlicher als auch auf praktischer Ebene, waren eine Folge der gesamtrussischen politischen Reformen, sie wiesen jedoch regionale Unterschiede auf. Der einsetzende Dezentralisierungsprozeß in der Verwaltung, der mit dem Zusammenbruch bzw. einer Schwächung der "vertikalen" Machtstrukturen einherging, und die Umverteilung von finanziellen Mitteln und Eigentum zugunsten der Regionen trugen ebenso zum Anstieg der Bedeutung und des Status der regionalen Machtstrukturen bei. Für die Untersuchung von Beziehungen dieser Strukturen untereinander und die Herausarbeitung der verschiedenen Förderalisierungs-, Demokratisierungs- und Dezentralisierungseffekte in den Regionen Rußlands wird ein zweidimensionale Modell eingesetzt. Im Rahmen dieses Modells kann das Problem der Gewaltenteilung in der Region in politischer Hinsicht in zwei Schlüsselfragen zusammengefaßt werden: (1) Wer kontrolliert die Zusammensetzung bzw. Einsetzung des Kabinetts, des Parlaments oder des Oberhauptes und inwieweit? (2) Ist eine Koexistenz von Kabinett und Parlament in Fällen gegenseitigen Mißtrauens möglich? (pre)

Intro -- Foreword: The Russian Path - From Enigma to an Understanding -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. The Major Ideas of Russian Reforms -- Orthodox-Communist Ideas -- Reformist-Socialist Ideas -- Market-Capitalist Ideas -- National-Patriotic and Imperial Ideas -- In Lieu of Conclusions -- Chapter 2. The Process of Reforms and the Influence of Interest Groups -- The Economic Reform of Perestroika -- Yeltsin and Gaidar's Economic Reforms -- Problems of the Post-Reform Economy in Russia -- Intermediate Conclusions -- Chapter 3. The Historical Path and the Slowdown of Changes -- A Patient More Dead than Alive -- A Patient More Alive than Dead -- Not an Ordinary, but a Permanent Revolution -- The NEP in Hostile Surroundings -- Chapter 4. The Reforms of the 1990s and Modern Institutions -- The Law Enforcement System in Present-day Russia -- "Expropriation of the Expropriators" in a New Way -- The Consequences of Inefficient Institutions for Russia -- A Post-Communist Mafia State -- The Predominance of State Paternalism -- Chapter 5. Public Illusions and Russian Realities -- Illusions of the Past -- A New Era, New Illusions -- The Crimean Problem -- The Empire's "Divorce" with the Nation -- Chapter 6. Bad Governance in Russia: A Vicious Circle? -- Introduction: Russia's Greatest Rent Machine -- Bad Governance in the Making -- "Bad Governance": Why? -- The Long Arm of the Past? -- The Power Vertical as a Mechanism of Bad Governance -- Chapter 7. Policy versus Politics: Technocratic Traps of Post-Soviet Reform -- The Technocratic Trap: Dictators, "Viziers" and "Eunuchs" -- The Origins of Post-Soviet Technocracy -- Technocracy at Work: Reforms in the Crossfire -- "Borrowing" and "Cultivating" Institutions: Any Possibility of Success? -- Alternatives to Technocracy: from Bad to Worse? -- Conclusion.