Imitation Democracy: The Development of Russia's Post-Soviet Political System

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia under Yeltsin and Putin implemented a political system of "imitation democracy," marked by "a huge disparity between formal constitutional principles and the reality of authoritarian rule." How did this system take shape, how else might it have developed, and what are the prospects for re-envisioning it more democratically in the future?



These questions animate Dmitrii Furman's Imitation Democracy, a welcome antidote to books that blandly decry ...