Book Manuscript

Local Control and Worldwide Access: Financial Internationalization and Wealth Protection in Russia
(under contract with Cornell University Press)
Summary:

By the time Vladimir Putin finished his second term as president in 2008, Russia was more integrated into the global financial system than at any point in the previous one hundred years. Meanwhile, the country’s traditional ailments, including widespread corruption, weak rule of law, and an increasingly overbearing state, continued unabated. Local Control and Global Access demonstrates that Russia’s post-Soviet re-entry into the global capital markets has been deeply entangled with the unruly competition for control over the vestiges of the Soviet industrial empire in an environment of insecure property rights. Russia’s unusual path towards financial integration, with its emphasis on the internationalization of the stock market, has allowed domestic elites to raise capital from foreign investors and to legitimize their wealth without improving the local business environment. The book delivers a somber lesson for the advocates of integrating emerging markets into the globalized financial system. Without strong domestic rule-of-law protections, financial internationalization entrenches oligarchic capitalism and strengthens authoritarian regimes.

Published Work

2019. “Before the Interests Are Invested: Disputes Over Asset Control and Equity Market Restrictions in Russia.” Review of International Political Economy

2018. "Weak States and Uneven Pluralism: Lessons from Mali and Kyrgyzstan"  Democratization  [w/ Jaimie Bleck]

2017. “Conflict and Violence in Kyrgyzstan.” Case Study for the UN-World Bank Flagship Study, “Pathways for Peace: Inclusive Approaches to Preventing Violent Conflict,” World Bank, Washington, DC.

2016. “Reflecting on Alternative Explanations and Legacies of State Socialism” (Review symposium of Kelly M. McMann’s Corruption as a Last Resort). Central Asian Affairs, 3: 193-96.

2014. Review of Capital, Coercion, and Postcommunist States by Gerald M. Easter Europe-Asia Studies 66-4

2013. "The Dirty Truth About Russia's 'Dirty' Money."  The Moscow Times # 5231.

2008. "Generational Differences in Russian Attitudes towards Democracy and the Economy." Europe-Asia Studies 8, 1345-69. [w/ Jeffrey Hahn]

Articles in Progress

“Authoritarian Welfare State, Regime Stability, and the 2018 Pension Reform in Russia.” (accepted at Communist and Post-Communist Studies)

 “Has Financial Globalization Contributed to Authoritarian Retrenchment in Russia and China?” (with Stephen Hess) (in draft)

“Uneven Pluralism in the Low-Income World.” (with Jaimie Bleck and David Muchlinski) (in draft)

“Open Economy, Closed Polity: The Case of Kazakhstan.” (in draft)







Please contact me for the most recent versions of these  papers.