Limits of a Post-Soviet State: How Informality Replaces, Renegotiates, and Reshapes Governance in Contemporary Ukraine: 154 (Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3838208455 ISBN 13: 9783838208459

Publisher: ibidem, 2016

Synopsis

This book illustrates why and how informality in governance is not necessarily transitory or temporary, but a constant in most systems of the world. The difference between various administrative structures is not whether informality is present or not, but where, in which areas, it is located. The essays gathered in this volume demonstrate that, in some cases, informal mechanisms are self-protective, while, in others, they are perceived as 'normal' responses and a set of tactics for individuals, classes, and communities to respond to unusual demands. Where expectations-of the state, a company, or some commission-are too far from citizens' existing models of normative behavior, informal behavior continues to thrive. Indeed, new tactics are adopted in order to cope with disjunctions between theory and reality as well as to serve as contrasts to values imposed by a center of power, such as a central state, a city administration, or the management board of a large company.
The focus of the papers contained in this book is two-fold and rests on an analysis of phenomena manifesting themselves “beyond” and “in spite of” the state. The first part deals with areas where the state is not always, or only marginally, active whilst the second analyzes activities performed in conflict with state regulations, i.e. behavior often studied from a criminal and legal standpoint.

About this title

About the Author

Andreas Umland, M.Phil. (Oxford), Dr.Phil. (FU Berlin), Ph.D. (Cambridge), Research Fellow at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs in Stockholm, Senior Expert at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future in Kyiv, and Associate Professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.

Edition details

• Publisher: ibidem
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3838208455
• ISBN 13: 9783838208459
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 258
• Editor: Umland Andreas