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Index
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
Abstracts
Introduction: Perspectives on Putin
Acknowledgements
1. Rus United
Castles
Leadership versus Ideology
State Mercantilism and the State-nation
Notes
2. Big Money as an Obstacle to Democracy in Russia
Introduction
The Standard of Living and Political Behaviour in Russia
Oil Prices and Changes in the Well-being of the Masses
The Official Policy of Encouraging an Easy and Merry Life
The De-democratization of Russian Society
The Friendly Passivity of the Masses
The Middle Class Does Not Support Democracy
Big Wealth and Democracy in Post-Soviet Russia
Reliance on the State Apparatus
Benefits and Perks
Private Business
The Permission of Corruption
‘Legal Nepotism’
Immunity Against Prosecution
The Apparatchiks’ Style of Life
The State Apparatus: The Loyal Actor
The Yearning to Become a Bureaucrat
The Direct Effect of Money on Political Life
The Suborning of Intellectuals
Acknowledgment
Notes
3. Pre-Modern State-Building in Post-Soviet Russia
The State, History and Transitology
Bringing the State Back In – Once Again
False Assumptions: Liberty versus the State
Stateness: Definitions
Liberty and Stateness: A Matrix of the Political Space
Bringing History Back In – How Far Back?
Historical Mapping
The Feudal Analogy
Yeltsin’s Feudal Russia: Antecedents and Consequences
The oligarchs and the economy–politics nexus
The barons and centre–periphery relations
Putin: From Feudalism to Absolutism
An Authoritarian Ruler?
Putin as a Pre-Modern State Maker
The Absolutist Analogy
The Public–Private Nexus
Centre–Periphery Relations
Clientelism and Personal Power
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Notes
4. Putin, Professional Politician
Putin in Context
Putin’s Political Choices
Facing the Business Challenge
Departure from the Soviet Social Contract
Building Russia as a Nation-State
An Assessment
Notes
5. The Russian Elite in Transition
Question: Could you say who were the people who created this power centre?
Question: Who was the ideologist, because none of them, so far as we can see, was a theorist or ideologist?
Notes
6. The Putin Phenomenon
Towards a Leadership Cult
Dimensions of a Leadership Cult
Explaining a Leadership Cult
Notes
7. Putin in Russian Fiction
Depictions of Putin
Fiction and Reality
Notes
Index
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