Russia: Institutional Design

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter is the first empirical chapter that assesses how the counter-hegemonic structural mode of WSR reproduction has been secured in Russia via strengthening the institutional mechanisms of social control. Institutional power structure is responsible for the dynamism of contender state development. The analysis focuses on the institutional arrangements in Russia: (a) the role of the country’s legislation and state institutions in overall welfare coverage (de-commodification); (b) the institutionally grounded shifts in class and status disparities (wealth redistribution); and (c) legislative and institutional WSR arrangements that restored or impeded the formation of social solidarity (connection). All three (a, b, c) are the variables that constitute the institutional mechanisms of social control, in an attempt to harmonise religion, democracy and private property. This chapter demonstrates how centralisation of state and civil institutions, monopolisation of the strategic sectors of the economy and para-constitutional settings have become counter-hegemonic mechanisms that, on one side, enabled the accumulation of resources necessary to restore the de-commodifying capabilities of the pension system and to reverse the monetisation reforms, while on another side, intensified institutional dualism and its stratifying effect on social formations.