postcommunist

Most experts agree that a large part of the increase since 1990 in Russia—and much of the postcommunist world—resulted from abuse of alcohol, in particular hard liquor.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Compared to many other postcommunist countries, however, this adjustment was very gradual.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

A number of other postcommunist countries have rates similarly high—16.4 in Ukraine, 14.8 in Bulgaria, 14.5 in Latvia, 13.9 in Serbia, 13.7 in Belarus, 13.5 in Lithuania, and 13.2 in Hungary—so the problem is not unique to Russia, but it does appear to be a crisis of the postcommunist transition rather than one common to middle income countries.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Structural reform—the closing of unsalvageable enterprises and farms and reallocation of labor to new, productive activities—was slower, indeed much slower, in russia than in many other postcommunist economies.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Among twenty-eight postcommunist countries for which the World Bank publishes data, Russia had only the fourteenth largest fall in population between 1989 and 2007 see Table 10.1.

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In the few respects in which it differs from these, it is comparable to other postcommunist countries.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

DANIEL TREISMAN is a professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles and a leading specialist on the politics and economics of postcommunist russia.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

In fact, the proportion in favor of revisiting privatization is lower in Russia than the average for the postcommunist states; in sixteen of twenty-eight such countries—including Hungary and Slovakia—an even higher percentage would like privatization redone in some way.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Mortality—and increases in it—tended to be lower in those postcommunist countries, and those regions within Russia, that had large Muslim populations, whose religion and culture discouraged alcohol consumption.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011

Looking at the political trajectories of postcommunist countries, there are strong geographical patterns.

The Return Daniel Treisman 2011