Valerie Sperling is an assistant professor of government and international relations at Clark University, and she is an Associate at the Davis centre for Russian Studies, Harvard University.

Part I The Elite: Ruling in Whose Interests?, 1 The "Use and Abuse" of Russia's Energy Resources: Implications for State-Society Relations, 2 Do the People Rule? The Use of Referenda in Russia, 3 The Divided Russian Elite: How Russia's Transition Produced a Counter-Elite, Part II The State: Weak Institutions and Crumbling Capacity, 4 Is the Russian State Coping with Organized Crime and Corruption?, 5 State Dysfunctionality, Institutional Decay, and the Russian Military, 6 Is the Center Too Weak or Too Strong in the Russian Federation?, 7 Liberal Transformation: Labor and the Russian State, 8 The Executive Deception: Superpresidentialism and the Degradation of Russian Politics, 9 Russian Courts: Enforcing the Rule of Law?, 10 Stability from Without? International Donors and "Good Governance" Strategies in Russia

This study critically assesses the condition of Russia's political, economic, social, legal, and military institutions and questions the capacity of the institutions to perform the duties of a state in the modern world. Has the Russian state managed to lay the institutional groundwork for long-term stability and democratic governance? The consensus of the contributors to this book is grim. The courts have grown increasingly complex, but their ability to enhance and support democracy has remained limited. State economic institutions have been unable to collect taxes, pay government workers, fund the healthcare system, pay its soldiers, or retain value in its currency. Political mechanisms for resolving center-periphery conflicts remain ineffective, and Russia's political institutions seem less focused on serving public interests than on enriching the power of those in power.