Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Chapter 1: Executive Power in Russian Politics
What Does Executive Leadership Mean in the Russian Context?
Authoritarian Modernizers: The Prototype
Characteristics of Authoritarian Modernizers
What Can We Learn from Past “Executives”?
Earlier Authoritarian Modernizers
The Brezhnev Era: The Long Calm before the Storm
The Uncertain Interregnum: Andropov and Chernenko
Chapter 2: The Gorbachev Presidency
The Starting Point: What Gorbachev Intended
Gorbachev’s Rise to Power
From General Secretary to President
The Reform Agenda: Politics and Policy
Political Reform: Democratization
Democratization of the Communist Party
The Presidency of the Russian Federation
The Battle of the Presidents
Gorbachev as an Authoritarian Modernizer
Chapter 3: The Yeltsin Presidency, 1991–1993
From Outcast to President
The President Becomes a President
A Real President Gets a Real Nation
Economic Reforms as a Political Issue
Yeltsin’s Economic Reforms: Phase I (1991–1993)
The Reform of the Party-State
National Identity and the Union Treaty
The President and the Legislature
Yeltsin as an Authoritarian Modernizer: A Preliminary Assessment
Chapter 4: Yeltsin and Russia Reborn
The Presidency and the Legislature
The 1996 Presidential Election
The Second Term: From Victory to Resignation
Yeltsin’s Economic Reforms: Phase II (1994-1999)
The December 1999 Duma Elections
Yeltsin’s Surprise Resignation
Yeltsin as an Authoritarian Modernizer: A Final Assessment
Chapter 5: Putin I, 2000–2008
The 2000 Presidential Election
Vladimir Putin: From Spy Novels to the Kremlin
The Putin Presidency Emerges from Yeltsin’s Shadow
Outside the Garden Ring: “Managing” the New Democracy
The Presidency and the Legislature: The 2003 Duma Elections
The 2004 Presidential Election
The Rules and the Game Change
The Run-Up to the 2008 Presidential Election
The 2008 Presidential Election
Putin as an Authoritarian Modernizer
Chapter 6: The “Tandem”
Dmitry Medvedev: Putin’s Friend from Leningrad
Governing the Nation in Tandem
Medvedev and Putin in Tandem
Medvedev and Economic Reform
Medvedev and Political Modernization
Medvedev and the Legislature: The 2011 Duma Elections
The Duma Election and Voting Fraud
The 2012 Presidential Election
Medvedev as an Authoritarian Modernizer
Chapter 7: Putin II, 2012–
Putin II: Old and New Realities
Maintaining the Balance within the Garden Ring
Controlling the Opposition
The Economy: Prosperity and Modernity
Russian Foreign Policy and the World
The Three Arenas of Russian Politics
Inside the Garden Ring: Factional Politics in Putin II
Outside the Garden Ring: Politics in the Rest of the Russian Federation
The Authoritarian Modernizer Revisited
The Legal System and the Courts
Connecting Those Inside and Outside the Garden Ring
The Leadership Cult as a Connection
Putin as an Authoritarian Modernizer
Chapter 8: The Future(s) of Russian Politics
The Future of the Russian Presidency(ies)
Changes in the Nature of Factional Politics
Changes in the Nature of Electoral Politics at the National, Regional, and Local Levels
Politics Moves to the Street: A Color Revolution or Moscow Spring
What Is a Color Revolution?
A Russian Color Revolution?
Index
