Post-Soviet Politics

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the area specialty of Soviet Politics has been transformed. Research on six themes is reviewed: state and revolution, democratization, federalism, economic growth, international relations, and institutional legacies reflecting the communist past. The review finds that post-Soviet research speaks directly to current trends in political science, and the findings of this research should impel generalists to re-specify their theories. A recommendation is offered that the study of post-Soviet politics should push political science away from a notion of institutionalization and in the direction of identifying institutional equilibria.