Stephen White - Böcker

Although the product of a self-proclaimed proletarian revolution, Soviet Russia was always dominated by an elite. Basing itself upon nearly two thousand people who served on the Communist Party's Central Committee from 1917 to 1991, this is the first book to study the elite that ruled the world's largest country throughout the entire period of Soviet rule. It is also the first to make full use of the rich sources available since the collapse of Communism. The authors profile the elite as a whole and looks more closely at fifteen individual members, identifying four elite generations. The book examines the evolving connection between Central Committee membership and administrative functions; the changing power and privileges of the elite and its relationship with the population; the Communist party and the top leaders; and the surprising extent to which the elite managed to maintain its position into the early years of post-communist Russia.

Comparative Politics is a series for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary government and politics. The General Editors are Professor Alfio Mastropaolo, University of Turin and Kenneth Newton, University of Southampton and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin . The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.The sister volume to Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, this book offers a systematic and rigorous analysis of parties in some of the world's major new democracies. Drawing on a wealth of expertise and data, the book assesses the popular legitimacy, organizational development and functional performance of political parties in Latin America and postcommunist Eastern Europe. It demonstrates the generational differences between parties in the old and new democracies, and reveals contrasts among the latter. Parties are shown to be at their most feeble in those recently transitional democracies characterized by personalistic, candidate-centred forms of politics, but in other new democracies - especially those with parliamentary systems - parties are more stable and institutionalized, enabling them to facilitate a meaningful degree of popular choice and control. Wherever party politics is weakly institutionalized, political inequality tends to be greater, commitment to pluralism less certain, clientelism and corruption more pronounced, and populist demagoguery a greater temptation. Without party, democracy's hold is more tenuous.

The sister volume to Political Parties in Advanced Industrial Democracies, this book offers a systematic and rigorous analysis of parties in some of the world's major new democracies. Drawing on a wealth of expertise and data, the book assesses the popular legitimacy, organizational development and functional performance of political parties in Latin America and postcommunist Eastern Europe. It demonstrates the generational differences between parties in the old and new democracies, and reveals contrasts among the latter. Parties are shown to be at their most feeble in those recently transitional democracies characterized by personalistic, candidate-centred forms of politics, but in other new democracies - especially those with parliamentary systems - parties are more stable and institutionalized, enabling them to facilitate a meaningful degree of popular choice and control. Wherever party politics is weakly institutionalized, political inequality tends to be greater, commitment to pluralism less certain, clientelism and corruption more pronounced, and populist demagoguery a greater temptation. Without party, democracy's hold is more tenuous. Comparative Politics is a series for scholars and students of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. The General Editor is David M. Farrell, Jean Monnet Chair in European Politics and Head of School of Social Sciences, University of Manchester. The series is published in association with the European Consortium for Political Research.

There is little consensus about the nature of the political system that has emerged during the Putin presidency. This collection considers the issues arising in this connection, focusing more closely on institutions such as the presidency and the security police, and on the socioeconomic dimensions of political power.

The official ideology of Marxism-Leninism is central to Soviet politics and yet its development in recent years has received very little scholarly attention.

The official ideology of Marxism-Leninism is central to Soviet politics and yet its development in recent years has received very little scholarly attention. In this book a group of leading specialists drawn from both sides of the Atlantic advance decisively upon all earlier discussions of this subject to provide both an authoritative and detailed picture of the development of official ideology from the early years up to Gorbachev's 1986 Party Programme, as well as a consideration of the changing role of ideology in Soviet foreign and domestic policy-making. The book will be required reading for all students of Soviet and communist politics; it should also be of interest to a wider non-specialist audience.

Written by a team of leading scholars, this book meets the need for an up-to-date account on the political system and policy progress which is amerging and an analysis of the future prospects of the "Gorbachev revolution".

This book maps changing definitions of statehood in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus as a result of their exclusion from an expanding Europe. The authors examine the perceptions of the place of each state in the international political system and its foreign policy choices, and draw comparisons across the region.

The central themes of Cell Boundaries concern the structural and organizational principles underlying cell membranes, and how these principles enable function. By building a biological and biophysical foundation for understanding the organization of lipids in bilayers and the folding, assembly, stability, and function of membrane proteins, the book aims to broaden the knowledge of bioscience students to include the basic physics and physical chemistry that inform us about membranes. In doing so, it is hoped that physics students will find familiar territory that will lead them to an interest in biology. Our progress toward understanding membranes and membrane proteins depends strongly upon the concerted use of both biology and physics. It is important for students to know not only what we know, but how we have come to know it, so Cell Boundaries endeavours to bring out the history behind the central discoveries, especially in the early chapters, where the foundation is laid for later chapters. Science is far more interesting if, as students, we can appreciate and share in the adventures—and misadventures—of discovering new scientific knowledge.Cell Boundaries was written with advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students in the biological and physical sciences in mind, though this textbook will likely have appeal to researchers and other academics as well.Highlights the history of important central discoveriesEarly chapters lay the foundation for later chapters to build on, so knowledge is amassedHigh-quality line diagrams illustrate key concepts and illuminate molecular mechanismsBox features and spreads expand on topics in main text, including histories of discoveries, special techniques, and applications

This book showcases a figure whose life and work bridge Classical and Hellenistic Greece. It comprises Tiziano Dorandi’s comprehensive new edition of the Clearchus ‘fragments’, accompanied by a richly annotated English translation from Stephen White, as well as nine new studies examining key aspects of Clearchus’ thought.Clearchus, from Soli on the island of Cyprus, was an Aristotelian philosopher and cultural historian active in the later fourth and early third centuries BCE. A versatile thinker and prolific author, he wrote on a wide range of subjects. Although none of his works survive, he is cited extensively by later authors. Topics addressed in this volume include his accounts of souls during sleep, educational traditions, forms of love, luxurious living, sage maxims and other traditional sayings, aquatic wildlife, lunar phenomena, and his relation to Plato and Platonism.Clearchus of Soli will interest both students and scholars of ancient Greek history, philosophy and science, and especially anyone interested in Aristotle and his circle, Hellenistic literature and culture, or Greek cultural history generally.

This book showcases a figure whose life and work bridge Classical and Hellenistic Greece. It comprises Tiziano Dorandi’s comprehensive new edition of the Clearchus ‘fragments’, accompanied by a richly annotated English translation from Stephen White, as well as nine new studies examining key aspects of Clearchus’ thought.Clearchus, from Soli on the island of Cyprus, was an Aristotelian philosopher and cultural historian active in the later fourth and early third centuries BCE. A versatile thinker and prolific author, he wrote on a wide range of subjects. Although none of his works survive, he is cited extensively by later authors. Topics addressed in this volume include his accounts of souls during sleep, educational traditions, forms of love, luxurious living, sage maxims and other traditional sayings, aquatic wildlife, lunar phenomena, and his relation to Plato and Platonism.Clearchus of Soli will interest both students and scholars of ancient Greek history, philosophy and science, and especially anyone interested in Aristotle and his circle, Hellenistic literature and culture, or Greek cultural history generally.

The statistics detailing the socioeconomic growth of Russia and China are impressive. On some projections, China will be the world’s largest economy by 2050, and Russia will be the sixth largest. Yet despite this impressive record of economic growth, a striking feature of both countries is the inegalitarian nature of their development – notwithstanding the (post)communist legacy. On most conventional measures, the two countries are now among the most unequal in the world, and the level of inequality has increased significantly since the 1990s. What effect does this endemic economic inequality have on political stability? From Aristotle onwards, observers have concluded that the greater the inequality within a society, the greater the likelihood of instability. This book addresses the relationship between economic inequality and political stability in Russia and China. Several chapters examine how economic performance has driven institutional reform, while others evaluate long term trends in public opinion to see how economic change has affected the public’s views of politics. The conclusion is that both regimes have proved adept at adapting to rising inequality by managing the policy agenda, guiding public opinion and co-opting or repressing political opposition. The chapters in this book originally published as a special issue in Europe-Asia Studies.

Ranging from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Eastern Europe in the 1980s this study examines Communist rule. By focusing primarily on the USSR and Eastern Europe Stephen White covers the major topics and issues affecting these countries, including:* communism as a doctrine* the evolution of Communist rule* the challenges to Soviet authority in Hungary and Yugoslavia* the emerging economic fragility of the 1960s* the complex process of collapse in the 1980s.Any student or scholar of European history will find this an essential addition to their reading list.

Ranging from the Russian revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Eastern Europe in the 1980s this study examines Communist rule. By focusing primarily on the USSR and Eastern Europe Stephen White covers the major topics and issues affecting these countries, including:* communism as a doctrine* the evolution of Communist rule* the challenges to Soviet authority in Hungary and Yugoslavia* the emerging economic fragility of the 1960s* the complex process of collapse in the 1980s.Any student or scholar of European history will find this an essential addition to their reading list.

The communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan.Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics.This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

At first, it seemed as if the international financial crisis that broke out in 2008 would have little effect in Russia and the other post-Soviet states. But, by the end of the year, growth was slowing, banks were reluctant to lend, share values had collapsed and unemployment was rising inexorably. The stability of the Putin leadership, it appeared, had been built on the turnaround in economic performance that it had managed to achieve over more than a decade. How would it cope with a sudden reversal? In Ukraine, living standards fell even more sharply. In Belarus, there were fewer obvious signs of economic difficulty, but it could hardly be unaffected by the performance of its major trading partners.Drawing on a wide range of evidence, an international group of scholars address the impact of the international financial crisis in the post-Soviet states and the continuing implications of the crisis for these countries themselves and for the wider world.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, now known as East European Politics.

Russia is the world’s largest country, and its politics affect the entire international community. Formally, who exercises the power of government is decided, as in Western democracies, by competitive elections that are held at regular intervals. But there have increasingly been doubts about the extent to which Russian parliamentary and presidential elections can be considered ‘free and fair’, and it is the argument of this coauthored study that they are better defined as ‘authoritarian elections’, with a number of distinct characteristics. Using a wide range of sources, including surveys, election statistics, interviews, focus groups and the printed press, the contributors to this important collection analyse Russia’s authoritarian elections in a variety of ways: how they are conducted, what citizens think about them, and how the Russian experience relates to a wider international context. Elections are the central mechanism by which citizens can seek to hold their government to account; this collection shows the ways in which that mechanism can be manipulated from above such it becomes more of an extension of central authority than a means by which the public at large can impose their own priorities. This book was originally published as a special issue of Europe-Asia Studies.

The communist world was supposed to have had its ‘revolution’ in 1989. But the demise of the Soviet Union came two years later, at the end of 1991; and then, perplexingly, a series of irregular executive changes began to take place the following decade in countries that were already postcommunist. The focus in this collection is the changes that took place in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005 that have together been called the ‘coloured revolutions’: of no particular colour in Serbia, but Rose in Georgia, Orange in Ukraine and Tulip in Kyrgyzstan.Apart from exploring political change in the ‘coloured revolution’ countries themselves, the contributors to this collection focus on countries that did not experience this kind of irregular executive change but which might otherwise be comparable (Belarus and Kazakhstan among them), and on reactions to ‘democracy promotion’ in Russia and China. Throughout, an effort is made to avoid taking the ‘coloured revolutions’ at face value, however they may have been presented by local leaders and foreign governments with their own agendas; and to place them within the wider literature of comparative politics.This book was previously published as a special issue of Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics.

In this volume, scholars from both sides of the Atlantic, using a breadth of source material including Soviet archives and the local press, present recent thinking and research on Soviet history. New Directions in Soviet History opens with a provocative review of Gorbachev and Soviet history by Pierre Broue. This is followed by papers on the changing nature of mass culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Jeffrey Brooks explores how public identities were constructed in the party press, Denise Youngblood looks at the role of the cinema and James van Gelderen examines tensions within the arts between the centre and the periphery. In the following section, Chris Ward, John Hatch, Catherine Merridale, John Russell and Robert Thurston discuss the distribution of authority in the workplace and, in particular, the politics of shopfloor culture between the wars. Finally, Evan Mawdsley assesses the changing nature of the Soviet political élite from the 1930s to the 1990s.

The Soviet system has undergone a dramatic transformation: from communist monopoly to multiparty politics, from marxism to competing values, from centralisation to fragmentation, and from state ownership to a mixed economy. This book, by three of the West's leading scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet affairs, traces the politics of transition in the late 1980s and early 1990s from its origins to its uncertain post-communist future. The authors analyse the full impact of transition on official and popular values, central and local political institutions, the post-Soviet republics, the CPSU and the parties which replaced it, and political communication. Detailed but clearly and accessibly written, The Politics of Transition provides an ideal guide to the changes that have been taking place in the politics of the newly-independent nations that together constitute a sixth of the world's land surface.

The Soviet system has undergone a dramatic transformation: from communist monopoly to multiparty politics, from marxism to competing values, from centralisation to fragmentation, and from state ownership to a mixed economy. This book, by three of the West's leading scholars of Soviet and post-Soviet affairs, traces the politics of transition in the late 1980s and early 1990s from its origins to its uncertain post-communist future. The authors analyse the full impact of transition on official and popular values, central and local political institutions, the post-Soviet republics, the CPSU and the parties which replaced it, and political communication. Detailed but clearly and accessibly written, The Politics of Transition provides an ideal guide to the changes that have been taking place in the politics of the newly-independent nations that together constitute a sixth of the world's land surface.

Dramatic and confusing changes in what used to be the Soviet Union have transformed the world in which we live. Communist rule has given way to multiparty politics; a command economy is being painfully privatised; almost every social and cultural value has been overturned; and perestroika has now been swept away by the reforming policies of Boris Yeltsin. In turn, these policies are now challenged by a variety of conservative and nationalist forces. This fourth edition of Stephen White's best-selling introductory text has been revised throughout. A new final chapter charts the first turbulent years of Yeltsin's troubled presidency and the background to his radical policies. Clearly written but detailed and authoritative, After Gorbachev, like its predecessors, will continue to provide an unrivalled guide to the processes of transition, upheaval, and collapse which now characterise Russia and the post-Soviet republics.

The Genoa Conference of April-May 1922 saw the first serious and sustained attempt to negotiate a modus vivendi between the newly established Soviet government in Moscow and the western capitalist countries that surrounded it. Drawing upon a wide range of archival and other sources, many of them unfamiliar or previously unexplored for this purpose, this study traces the evolution of Soviet-Western relations from the Revolution up to the autumn of 1921, when the proposal for a conference first began to emerge, and then considers in more detail the course of preconference diplomacy and the proceedings of the conference itself, up to the early summer of 1922. In his final chapter Dr White argues that the failure to resolve East-West differences at Genoa was attributable to a variety of circumstances, but above all to a failure of political will.

Russians are the world's heaviest drinkers. The consumption of alcohol permeates family life, shapes the economy, and plays an occasional but striking role in the political leadership. It was in Russia in the 1980s that the most sustained attempt of its kind was made to eliminate alcohol abuse, and even drinking itself. Drawing upon a wide range of original sources, including interviews, surveys and the local press, Stephen White provides the first full-length study of this extraordinary campaign. He traces the profound influence of alcohol through Russian history, and charts the campaign from its initiation under Mikhail Gorbachev to its disappointing aftermath in the post-communist 1990s. Attractively written and fully illustrated, Russia Goes Dry, first published in 1995, is an entertaining as well as instructive guide to a changing society and a classic case study of the limitations of politically directed social reform.

Russians are the world's heaviest drinkers. The consumption of alcohol permeates family life, shapes the economy, and plays an occasional but striking role in the political leadership. It was in Russia in the 1980s that the most sustained attempt of its kind was made to eliminate alcohol abuse, and even drinking itself. Drawing upon a wide range of original sources, including interviews, surveys and the local press, Stephen White provides the first full-length study of this extraordinary campaign. He traces the profound influence of alcohol through Russian history, and charts the campaign from its initiation under Mikhail Gorbachev to its disappointing aftermath in the post-communist 1990s. Attractively written and fully illustrated, Russia Goes Dry, first published in 1995, is an entertaining as well as instructive guide to a changing society and a classic case study of the limitations of politically directed social reform.

Just as the Bolshevik revolution defined the early politics of the 20th century, the transition from communist rule is the landmark event of its final years. In this important 1999 textbook, based on a wealth of references including interview and survey material, Stephen White offers a full, discriminating account of the dramatic process of change in what is still the world's largest country. After an early chapter examining the Gorbachev legacy, the book analyses the electoral process, the powerful presidency, and the intractable problem of economic reform. Later chapters cover social divisions, public opinion, and foreign policy, and a final chapter places the Russian experience within the wider context of democratisation. Clearly written, with numerous figures and illustrations, this book takes up Russia's story from the author's best-selling After Gorbachev to provide an unrivalled analysis of the politics of change in what is now the world's largest postcommunist society.

Just as the Bolshevik revolution defined the early politics of the 20th century, the transition from communist rule is the landmark event of its final years. In this important 1999 textbook, based on a wealth of references including interview and survey material, Stephen White offers a full, discriminating account of the dramatic process of change in what is still the world's largest country. After an early chapter examining the Gorbachev legacy, the book analyses the electoral process, the powerful presidency, and the intractable problem of economic reform. Later chapters cover social divisions, public opinion, and foreign policy, and a final chapter places the Russian experience within the wider context of democratisation. Clearly written, with numerous figures and illustrations, this book takes up Russia's story from the author's best-selling After Gorbachev to provide an unrivalled analysis of the politics of change in what is now the world's largest postcommunist society.

A fresh and compelling interpretation of Russian politics by a leading authority, this textbook focuses on political developments in the world's largest country under Putin and Medvedev. Using a wealth of primary sources, it covers economic, social and foreign policy, and the 'system' of politics that has developed in recent years. Opposing arguments are presented and students are encouraged to reach their own judgements on key events and issues such as privatisation and corruption. This textbook tackles timely topics such as gender and inequality issues; organised religion; the economic krizis; and Russia's place in the international community. It uses numerous examples to place this powerful and richly-endowed country in context, with a focus on the place of ordinary people which shows how policy is translated to Russians' everyday lives.