Introduction; C. Pursiainen -- A Short History of 'Catching Up'; C. Pursiainen -- The Free-Market State or the Welfare State?; M. Kivinen & L. Chunling -- Authoritarianism or Democracy?; C. Pursiainen & M. Pei -- Sovereignty or Interdependency?; S. Medvedev & L. Jakobson -- Conclusions; C. Pursiainen
Summary
Over the past two or three decades, Russia and China have both experienced extensive socio-economic and political transformation, as well as foreign policy reorientation. However, this transformation has not followed one pattern, but rather has taken two specific routes. How do their strategies differ, and how are they interrelated? When -- and at what junctures -- were the crucial choices made? What are the strategic choices that have yet to be made by Russia and China? What are the alternatives, how are they constructed and what are the internal and external settings that constrain the choices between different policy lines? This book provides the first structured comparison of Russia's and China's post-communist modernisation paths from the perspective of three interrelated arenas of social change: political system, socio-economic system, and foreign policies