Market as a Weapon: The Socio-economic Machinery of Dominance in Russia

Power is all-encompassing in Russia, and mediates most interactions among people, including everyday decisions. Even the recent administrative reforms in the country, which began at the end of the 1990s, have tried to reshape the government institutions and modernize the country through the use of power. Changes were initiated and implemented by people vested with power.

Power, convention, and trust can all support coordination. However, in the Russian institutional context power tends not o...