When Ideas Fail

Joachim Zweynert is Professor of International Political Economy at Witten/ Herdecke University, Germany. He studied economics and political science at Hamburg University, Germany.

• Table of Contents1 Introduction 2 The Role of Ideas in Great TransformationsTransition as functional differentiationConstructivist institutionalism and the structure/agency-problemWhat is special about RussiaWhat is special about Russia I: Lack of liberal underground discoursesWhat is specific about Russia II: The struggle between two thought collectivesWhat is Specific about Russia III: Deep ideational backgrounds3 The Legacy of the Brezhnev Period: 1971-1986Why deal with the Brezhnev period? Self-organization versus mobilizationThe economics of developed socialismThe origins of the conceptThe economic mechanismBase and superstructureCommodity-money relationsConclusion4 Cracking the Protective Belt: 1987-1992Back to the 1960s and taking it furtherWhat was Soviet ideology? Perestroika and the Soviet telosEarly debates in Voprosy ekonomiki, and the new textbook on political economyThe inflow of Western liberal ideasThe MEiMO debate on Western reformsThe Debates in the general interest pressThe decline of Soviet ideologyParadigm shift or continuity? 5 Towards a Precarious Consensus: 1993-1998Western textbooks, Russian realityThe intellectual background to shock therapyPost-industrial society and the comeback of slavophile ideasRegulation, economic security, and the "Russian economic school" The rise of Russian institutionalismA new consensus? 6 In Search of a "Russian Way": 1999-2006Taking stock of post-socialist reformsThe discussion about the stabilization fundThe nationalist turn