Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 16 The Economics of Reindeer Herding: Saami Entrepreneurship between Cyclical Sustainability and the Powers of State and Oligopolies
- Chapter 17 European Integration, Innovations and Uneven Economic Growth: Challenges and Problems of EU 2005
- Chapter 18 Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development
- Chapter 19 European Eastern Enlargement as Europe’s Attempted Economic Suicide?
- Chapter 20 The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States: Productive Structure as the Missing Link
- Chapter 21 Emulation vs. Comparative Advantage: Competing and Complementary Principles in the History of Economic Policy
- Chapter 22 The Terrible Simplifers: Common Origins of Financial Crises and Persistent Poverty in Economic Theory and the New ‘1848 Moment’
- Chapter 23 Industrial Restructuring and Innovation Policy in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990
- Chapter 24 Capitalist Dynamics: A Technical Note
- Chapter 25 Neo-Classical Economics: A Trail of Economic Destruction
- Chapter 26 Modernizing Russia: Round III. Russia and the Other BRIC Countries: Forging Ahead, Catching Up or Falling Behind?
- Chapter 27 Economics and the Public Sphere: The Rise of Esoteric Knowledge, Refeudalization, Crisis and Renewal
- Chapter 28 Three Veblenian Contexts: Valdres, Norway and Europe; Filiations of Economics; and Economics for an Age of Crises
- Chapter 29 Civilizing Capitalism: “Good” and “Bad” Greed from the Enlightenment to Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
- Chapter 30 Failed and Asymmetrical Integration: Eastern Europe and the Non-financial Origins of the European Crisis
- Chapter 31 Renewables, Manufacturing and Green Growth: Energy Strategies Based on Capturing Increasing Returns
- Chapter 32 Financial Crises and Countermovements: Comparing the Times and Attitudes of Marriner Eccles (1930s) and Mario Draghi (2010s)
- Chapter 33 The Inequalities That Could Not Happen: What the Cold War Did to Economics
- Chapter 34 Industrial Policy: A Long-term Perspective and Overview of Theoretical Arguments
- Index
Chapter 26 - Modernizing Russia: Round III. Russia and the Other BRIC Countries: Forging Ahead, Catching Up or Falling Behind?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Chapter 16 The Economics of Reindeer Herding: Saami Entrepreneurship between Cyclical Sustainability and the Powers of State and Oligopolies
- Chapter 17 European Integration, Innovations and Uneven Economic Growth: Challenges and Problems of EU 2005
- Chapter 18 Institutionalism Ancient, Old and New: A Historical Perspective on Institutions and Uneven Development
- Chapter 19 European Eastern Enlargement as Europe’s Attempted Economic Suicide?
- Chapter 20 The Economics of Failed, Failing and Fragile States: Productive Structure as the Missing Link
- Chapter 21 Emulation vs. Comparative Advantage: Competing and Complementary Principles in the History of Economic Policy
- Chapter 22 The Terrible Simplifers: Common Origins of Financial Crises and Persistent Poverty in Economic Theory and the New ‘1848 Moment’
- Chapter 23 Industrial Restructuring and Innovation Policy in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990
- Chapter 24 Capitalist Dynamics: A Technical Note
- Chapter 25 Neo-Classical Economics: A Trail of Economic Destruction
- Chapter 26 Modernizing Russia: Round III. Russia and the Other BRIC Countries: Forging Ahead, Catching Up or Falling Behind?
- Chapter 27 Economics and the Public Sphere: The Rise of Esoteric Knowledge, Refeudalization, Crisis and Renewal
- Chapter 28 Three Veblenian Contexts: Valdres, Norway and Europe; Filiations of Economics; and Economics for an Age of Crises
- Chapter 29 Civilizing Capitalism: “Good” and “Bad” Greed from the Enlightenment to Thorstein Veblen (1857–1929)
- Chapter 30 Failed and Asymmetrical Integration: Eastern Europe and the Non-financial Origins of the European Crisis
- Chapter 31 Renewables, Manufacturing and Green Growth: Energy Strategies Based on Capturing Increasing Returns
- Chapter 32 Financial Crises and Countermovements: Comparing the Times and Attitudes of Marriner Eccles (1930s) and Mario Draghi (2010s)
- Chapter 33 The Inequalities That Could Not Happen: What the Cold War Did to Economics
- Chapter 34 Industrial Policy: A Long-term Perspective and Overview of Theoretical Arguments
- Index
Summary
Report for the Global Policy Forum ‘The Modern State: Standards of Democracy and Criteria of Efficiency’, Yaroslavl, Russia, 9–10 September 2010.
Introduction. Modernizing Russia: The Context
‘Despite many currents and cross currents, continuity is perhaps the most impressive phenomenon in the history of economic doctrines.’1 These words by a very experienced economic historian are still extremely relevant, also for economic policy. But continuity in economics is of a peculiar and cyclical kind. It does not manifest itself in smooth incremental transitions, but rather in the recurrence of similar sets of ideas in similar contexts over time.
The economics profession and what is considered ‘best practice’ economic policy is, then, decidedly cyclical. Its cyclicality appears to follow the same type of mechanisms of ‘destabilizing stability’ described by US economist Hyman Minsky as leading up to financial crises. In the financial sector, when things are stable and improving over long periods of time, bank routines of risk evaluation grow increasingly lax, and in the end credit is given to people who are not even able to pay interest on the loans they are given (‘Ponzi financing’, as with subprime loans). In other words, long periods of stability lead to increasing vulnerability: to Minsky's ‘destabilizing stability’.
Similar cycles are at work as regards our understanding of economics and industrial policy: long periods of economic progress in the core countries lead to increasingly abstract and irrelevant economic theories. ‘Bad’ theories – particularly as they are applied outside the economic core – are allowed to dominate the discipline for long periods of time because the underlying economy is strong enough to withstand their poisonous influences, but, eventually, reality catches up and disaster ensues. This brings less abstract and more relevant economic theories and practices back; mindless laissez-faire is abandoned and more active economic governance again becomes acceptable. These turning-points can, after their most famous manifestation, be referred to as ‘1848 moments’, and they tend to be caused by economic crises, just as the 1848 turning point followed upon the severe financial crisis of 1847.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Other Canon of EconomicsEssays in the Theory and History of Uneven Economic Development, pp. 737 - 772Publisher: Anthem PressPrint publication year: 2024