Daniel Treisman
Essay
Mar/Apr
2004
Conventional wisdom in the West says that post-Cold War Russia has been a disastrous failure. The facts say otherwise. Aspects of Russia's performance over the last decade may have been disappointing, but the notion that the country has gone through an economic cataclysm and political relapse is wrong--more a comment on overblown expectations than on Russia's actual experience. Compared to other countries at a similar level of economic and political development, Russia looks more the norm than the exception.
Essay
Nov/Dec
2002
Most observers think Vladimir Putin is remaking Russia. In fact, although the faces may have changed, Putin's Russia is more like Yeltsin's than is generally recognized. Oligarchs still reign, war in Chechnya rages on, and most of Putin's innovations are superficial. Meanwhile, most of what is new in Russia--the growing economy and Putin's popularity--owes little to the president's policies.
Review Essay
Nov/Dec
2000
Three books ask what went wrong in Russia but find the wrong scapegoats: the oligarchs and neoliberal reformers. In fact, Russia's woes have much deeper roots.
Essay
Sep/Oct
1996
Reporters and pundits have spun many theories as to why Yeltsin won. None of them matches the polling data. Clever campaigning, anticommunist scare tactics, even efforts to end the war in Chechnya came at the wrong time. Boris Yeltsin passed Gennadi Zyuganov in the polls only when he traveled the country ladling out pork. Yeltsin doubled the minimum pension and paid off the backlog in wages. A Vorkuta coal miner asked for a car -- and got it. A presidential aide slipped a bystander a handful of cash. High-minded criticism from the West notwithstanding, Tammany tactics are hardly unknown in Western politics, and they did keep a communist out of office.
