Russian Culture, Property Rights, and the Market EconomyCambridge University Press, 2007 M05 28 - 297 pages The Russian Federation is struggling, since Perestroika and the Glasnost, in a futile attempt to become a â€~normal' member in the occidental family of market economies. The attempt largely fails because corporations do not live up to Western standards of behavior, and private contracts are often not respected. What is the cause of Russia's observed difficulties? It is commonly believed that these difficulties are an expected outcome of a rocky transition from a Marxist, centrally planned system, to a market based economy. This book challenges the accepted wisdom. In tracing the history of contract and the corporation in the West, it shows that the cultural infrastructure that gave rise to these patterns of economic behavior have never taken root on Russian soil. This deep divide between Russian and Western cultures is hundreds of years old, and has little, if anything to do with the brief, seventy-year-long experimentation with overtly Marxist ideology. The transformation of Russia into a veritable market economy requires much more than an expensive and difficult transition period: it mandates a radical change in her cultural underpinnings. The book's main thesis is supported by an in-depth comparison of Western and Russian theology, philosophy, literary and artistic achievements, musical and architectural idioms and folk culture. |
Contents
Section 1 | 28 |
Section 2 | 29 |
Section 3 | 32 |
Section 4 | 45 |
Section 5 | 58 |
Section 6 | 59 |
Section 7 | 83 |
Section 8 | 86 |
Section 12 | 127 |
Section 13 | 130 |
Section 14 | 144 |
Section 15 | 150 |
Section 16 | 164 |
Section 17 | 166 |
Section 18 | 189 |
Section 19 | 201 |
Section 9 | 89 |
Section 10 | 92 |
Section 11 | 95 |
Section 20 | 233 |
Section 21 | 260 |
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actually Alberti Ambrogio Lorenzetti architecture artistic assumpsit authority Bacon beauty believed boyars Byzantine Calvin Calvinist Cambridge Catholic central century Chapter Christ Christian Church claim Common Law concept contract law corporate corruption divine doctrine dominated Dostoyevsky E. H. Gombrich early economic enforcement entirely example existence external faith famous figure God’s hand Holy human humanist ibid iconography iconostasis ideas individual interpretation James Billington John Leon Battista Alberti Leonardo linear perspective Malevitch means medieval Middle Ages mind modern moral Nakaz nation nature norms objects observation one’s original Orthodox painting Pareto efficient parties Pavel Florensky person Perun Peter Petersburg philosophical pictorial political prototype published reality reason reflected Reformation reign Renaissance Revolution role rules Russian culture Russian icons saints sense social society soul spirit structure style symbol theology things Timothy Ware tradition transformed translated truth University Press West Western words York