Crafting Authoritarian Politics

The collapse of communism in Russia in 1990 brought much optimism about the triumph of democracy. The experience since 1990 has not lived up to that early optimism, and Russia remains an essentially authoritarian state. This project would use the wealth of public opinion surveys conducted since 1990 to understand the dynamics of democratization in Russia to explain why democracy has not taken root. The project also aims to expand our understanding of the dynamics of political change in authoritarian societies in theoretical and conceptual terms.