State-Building
Looks at the process of state-building in Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia from a political economy and institutional perspective. Weak and distorted state capacity has come to be widely recognized as a key obstacle to successful transformation—including economic modernization and growth as well as the consolidation of democracy. However, so far little systematic research has been carried out on state capacity per se and on how to explain its development.
The book provides new insights in considering the evolution of Ukraine since 1992, offering an in-depth view of institutional development in crucial areas and thus tracing the process of state-building. It draws comparisons with developments in Belarus, Lithuania, and Russia (based on field research). To capture the process of state-building empirically, focuses on the extraction and expenditure systems which are a central pillar of state capacity and also a central link between citizens and the state. The book also sheds light on how Ukraine’s potential ‘second transition’ currently under way will have an impact on its institutional system.
Introduction
PART I. State- and institution-building — a framework for analysis
Chapter 1: The state and state-building definitions and debates
The state and state-building
Fiscal perspectives on the state
Regimes and states: the missing link in the transition debate
Potential contributions of post-Soviet cases to general theories of state-building
Chapter 2: A framework for assessing states: size, capacity, and quality
The three aspects of the state
States as problems and solutions under various regimes
The size of the state
State capacity: decision-making, implementation, and control
Chapter 3: The dynamic of change: state-building as institution building
State-building as institutional change –deterioration and re-building
The costs and risks of institutional change
Types of institutional change
The importance of formal-informal discrepancies
Chapter 4: A model of post-Soviet state-building trajectories
The casual model
Individual and casual factors
Four state-building trajectories
Summary
PART II. State-building in Ukraine
Chapter 5: State-building in the post-Soviet region
The Soviet state and its fiscal system
Institutional deterioration: perestroika and the break-up of the Soviet Union
State-building in the post-Soviet ‘universe’
Exploring some quantitative relationships: level of development and political consolidation
Summary
Chapter 6: From Soviet breakdown to disordered independence
From Soviet republic to independent Ukraine
The great depression: economic crisis after independence
The challenge of nation-building
Struggles for power and institutional weakness
A fiscal system in crisis
The first steps of state-building
Chapter 7: A new trajectory taking shape
Economic stabilization and virtualization
The bid for presidential consolidation
State-society relations – the rise of political-business groups and weak democratic accountability
External factors
Stabilizing the fiscal system
Shaping and distorting the new state
Chapter 8: The second transition
From hybrid regime to unconsolidated democracy
Economic recovery and socio-economic policies of the new government
The power of civil society and the continuing importance of opaque groups
External influences on the rise
Fiscal developments: reforms and revelations
From Kuchma to Yushenko: Re-tooling the state
Summary: the state-building process in Ukraine as reflected in the fiscal system
Section 4
Chapter 9: Averting institutional change: the case of Belarus
Political developments: from liberalization to democracy
Economic developments: preserving the command economy
Belarus’ international situation
State-society relations in Belarus
Fiscal policies
Belarus: the strong state that does not want to be a state
PART III.
Chapter 10: Lithuania: Moving towards a Western model
Political developments: early elite re-configuration and after
Economic developments: the great leap from communism to capitalism
State-society relations in Lithuania
Fiscal and budgetary system
State capacity and its determinants in Lithuania
Chapter 11: The ‘authoritarianizing’ route to recovery: the case of Russian tax reform
The stage: political power and oligarchic groups
The economic background to reform
State-society relations
Fiscal crisis and tax reform: surveying explanations
From drag to leap: the gestation and eventual success of tax reform
From prolonged deterioration to unfinished recovery: the Russian path of state-building
Chapter 12: Conclusion
Appendix
Bibliography