This book examines the current state of Russia and the prospects for democracy.

Introduction; Part I. Russia: 1. Peculiarities of Russian politics Andranik Migranyan; 2. Imitating democracy, imitating authoritarianism Stephen Holmes; 3. Russian perspectives on democracy, political emancipation, and integrity Mikhail Ilyin; 4. Color revolutions and Russia Valery Solovei; Part II. Democracy in a Russian Mirror: 5. Judging democracy as form of government for given territories: utopia or apologetics? John Dunn; 6. Democracy: ancient and modern, good and bad Pasquale Pasquino; 7. The role of elections in democracy Boris Makarenko; 8. Elections and the challenge of more democracy José María Maravall; 9. Democracy between elections Ian Shapiro; 10. General settings, regional/national factors and the concept of non-western democracy Alexei D. Voskressenski; 11. 'Non-western democracy' in the West Adam Przeworski; Part III. Paths of Political Change: 12. Instituting political change John Ferejohn; 13. Political institution and political order(s) Adam Przeworski; 14. How do transitions to democracy get stuck and where? Boris Makarenko and Andrei Melville; Afterword: open issues and disagreements.