Marsh, Christopher

About the author: Christopher Marsh is an assistant professor of political science at Baylor University, where he teaches in the area of comparative politics and international relations, with a focus on Russian politics and foreign policy. Dr. Marsh received his PhD in political science from the University of Connecticut. His work has been published in such journals as Communist and Post-Communist Studies and the Journal of Baltic Studies.

Making Russian Democracy Work Social Capital, Economic Development, and Democratization

2000 0-7734-7803-5
This book explores the myriad factors at work in the process of post-Communist democratization in Russia, with an explicit focus on the role performed by social capital and socio-economic development. Using both an historical approach and quantitative evidence from across Russia’s 89 regions, this work explores the role performed by economic development and social capital leading to the democratization of the Soviet Union and in contributing to the consolidation of democracy in contemporary Russia. The results offer some grounds for a guardedly optimistic assessment of the prospects for making democracy work in Russia. The work contributes to the body of literature on comparative regime transitions, post-Communist politics, and to the study of democratic governance in general.