Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Introduction: modernising sistema
- 1 What is sistema?
- 2 Putin's sistema: svoi on top
- 3 The inner workings of sistema: from blat to otkat
- 4 Sistema's material culture: from vertushka to Vertu
- 5 ‘Telephone justice’ in the global age: from commands to signals
- 6 ‘Werewolves in epaulets’: from doublethink to doubledeed
- 7 From dealership to leadership: sistema and informal governance
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Survey questions
- Appendix 2 Interview questions
- Appendix 3 List of interviews
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Introduction: modernising sistema
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of boxes
- Acknowledgements
- List of abbreviations and acronyms
- Introduction: modernising sistema
- 1 What is sistema?
- 2 Putin's sistema: svoi on top
- 3 The inner workings of sistema: from blat to otkat
- 4 Sistema's material culture: from vertushka to Vertu
- 5 ‘Telephone justice’ in the global age: from commands to signals
- 6 ‘Werewolves in epaulets’: from doublethink to doubledeed
- 7 From dealership to leadership: sistema and informal governance
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1 Survey questions
- Appendix 2 Interview questions
- Appendix 3 List of interviews
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Index
- References
Summary
From the power of networks to networks of power
Sistema is an open secret in Russia that has a powerful grip over the society. It represents common, yet not articulated, perceptions of power and the system of governance. My ethnography of sistema is an attempt to articulate, assemble and cross-check such perceptions with insiders of the corridors of power, as well as to explore the daily functioning and mundane practices of Russia's ‘state machine’. The perceptions of sistema are elusive, context-bound, obscured by self-deception and often resist articulation but the daily patterns commonly associated with the power of sistema can be identified.
This book is a sequel to Russia's Economy of Favours (Ledeneva 1998). There I applied the bottom-up perspective to analyse blat, networking and informal exchange at the grassroots level. Here I look at the workings of power networks and methods of informal governance. I explore both enabling and constraining aspects of belonging to power networks and delve into the nuances of how they can be managed. I rely on my respondents to articulate the ‘secrets’ of sistema. Sistema rules are taken for granted by insiders, and their misrecognition of sistema is part of the story. The best sources are once-an-insider respondents, who broke sistema rules and were marginalised, or those who distanced themselves from sistema due to their career movements, personal development and global outlook.
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- Information
- Can Russia Modernise?Sistema, Power Networks and Informal Governance, pp. 1 - 18Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013