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31. The Gap that Survived the Transition: The Gender Wage Gap over Three Decades in Estonia

Author:
Jaanika Meriküll and Maryna Tverdostup
Publication Date:
08-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (WIIW)
Abstract:
This paper looks at the gender wage gap throughout the transition from communism to capitalism and throughout a time of rapid economic convergence. The case of Estonia is used, and micro data from the Labour Force Survey from 1989 to 2020 are employed. The communist regimes had highly regulated wage setting and high levels of educational attainment and labour market participation for women. Although the regime was formally egalitarian, the gender attitudes were conservative and the raw gender wage gap was as large as 41% at the end of the communist period in Estonia. The large gender wage gap under communist rule narrowed quickly during the first years of economic transition, but the further decline in the gap has been slow. The paper has two main messages. The first is that there is strong inertia in the gender wage gap persisting through the communist period and economic convergence. None of the known long-run cultural drivers of gender attitudes can explain this. The second is that the decline in the gap is related to the overall decline in wage inequality, the rise in minimum wages, and more egalitarian gender attitudes. The gender attitudes are responsible for a smaller effect than wage inequality is.
Topic:
Economy, Minimum Wage, Post-Soviet Space, Wage Income, Attitudes, and Gender Wage Gap
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe and Estonia

32. The Long Shadow: Immediate and Downstream Consequences of the Collapse of the USSR

Author:
George W. Breslauer
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
For most Russians, the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1991 was highly disorienting, if not traumatizing. They were sud- denly living in a new world. Many appreciated the newfound freedoms (of speech, association, religion, travel, and limited economic entrepreneurship) bequeathed by Mikhail Gorbachev’s reforms. Still, however much they appreci- ated Gorbachev’s ending of the Cold War, Russians had to get used to a long list of shattering losses. Their country was no longer a distinct, multi-ethnic civilization or an acknowledged “great power” that could take pride in its history. The economy was collapsing amidst deepening shortages of consumer goods, while organized crime climbed above ground to demand protection money and collude with state and party officials to strip state assets.1 Abroad, the country was a lonely “has-been.” The states of Eastern Europe were no longer military allies or vassals, and Russia could no longer claim to be the virtuous leader of an anti-imperialist “world communist movement.” The USSR’s prior claims of being a “global power” were nullified by the parlous state of the Russian military and the country’s economic dependence on the West in the wake of the collapse. The only international status indicator that remained was the claim of being a nuclear “superpower.”
Topic:
History, Economy, Vladimir Putin, and Post-Soviet Space
Political Geography:
Russia and Soviet Union

33. 30 Years Since the Collapse of the Soviet Union: Democracy, Community, and Russia

Author:
Jerzy Buzek
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
I am a man of Solidarity—Solidarność. That is the name of the mass social movement that began in Poland in 1980 and brought freedom and democracy to not only my country but to all of Central and Eastern Europe. 1989 marked the end of the Eastern Bloc, and 1991 brought the collapse of the Soviet Union. Back then, there was hope it would indeed be “the end of history” and that there would be no going back to the past. The fall of the communist empire seemed to be the ultimate proof for us in Poland and Central Eastern Europe, but also for the entire world, that there was no more place for authoritarian regimes and that oppressive governments would perish sooner or later. Such was the experi- ence of generations that lived through the twentieth century. Three decades prior, the air we breathed was full of democracy; we needed that air once more.
Topic:
Communism, Democracy, Community, and Post-Soviet Space
Political Geography:
Russia and Soviet Union

34. The Power of Law and Justice: The Contribution of Latvia to the Global Development and Defense of Democracy

Author:
Egils Levits
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
In May 1985, I wrote the following statement in a Canadian Latvian maga- zine: “In 5-, 20- or 50-years’ time the Soviet Union will be gone from Latvia.”1 Back then, I was just a young lawyer and political scientist—a researcher at the University of Kiel in Germany—having emigrated from the USSR-occupied Latvia 13 years earlier. I took an active part in the political life of Latvians in exile. Most believed that the bipolar world in which the nuclear superpowers of the West and East faced off would never change. So, why was I convinced that the Soviet Empire would collapse?
Topic:
Defense Policy, Development, Law, Democracy, Justice, and Post-Soviet Space
Political Geography:
Latvia and Baltic States

35. The USSR and its Influence on Developments in the Right to Self- Determination

Author:
Robert McCorquodale
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
On a cold day in early March 1990, a phone call was made from the office of an economics minister in the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithu- anian SSR) to a junior academic at the University of Cambridge. The question was asked: what laws should the government of Lithuanian SSR pass to declare itself independent from the Soviet Union? After a few days, the junior academic proposed a potential course of action to the Lithuanian caller. His proposal, combined with other, more expert opinions, was adopted by the government of the Lithuanian SSR as part of its declaration of (renewed) independence proclaimed on 11 March 1990.1
Topic:
Development, Independence, Post-Soviet Space, and Self-Determination
Political Geography:
Soviet Union

36. Dynamics of Ukraine-Russia Relations

Author:
Roman Popadiuk
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
The end of the Soviet Union seemed to augur an era of peace and coopera- tion: The Cold War was over, Europe was whole and free, and Russia—moving toward democracy and a free-market economy—held the promise of becoming a meaningful member of the global community. While much of the interna- tional community’s focus was on Russia, a key factor for realizing the West’s aspirations was dependent on the development of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia.
Topic:
Cold War, Bilateral Relations, Regional Integration, and Post-Soviet Space
Political Geography:
Russia, Eurasia, and Ukraine

37. Hegemony Without Leadership: Russia’s Strategy in the Post-Soviet Space

Author:
Kataryna Wolczuk
Publication Date:
09-2021
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Institution:
Brown Journal of World Affairs
Abstract:
During its relatively long existence, the Soviet Union was viewed with a mix of awe and fear: awe, owing to its immense capacity to play economic catch-up and fear, as to how that capacity would be used. It was only after the state’s collapse that its true nature was exposed. Despite its immense—though extremely costly in terms of human suf- fering—achievements, the USSR turned out to be a house of cards: the speed with which its institutions collapsed left behind 15 ostensibly modern, yet mis-developed, states. Not one of them possessed the functional capacity or the expertise to address the manifest legacies of Soviet mis-development, which included an autocratic political culture, maladapted institutions, pervasive cor- ruption, and swaths of socioeconomic deprivation.
Topic:
Hegemony, Leadership, Strategic Interests, and Post-Soviet Space
Political Geography:
Russia and Eurasia

38. State Capture and Inequality

Author:
Elizabeth David-Barrett
Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
Abstract:
State capture is a type of systematic corruption whereby narrow interest groups take control of the institutions and processes that make public policy, excluding other parts of the public whose interests those institutions are supposed to serve. State capture is often associated with the first decade of transition in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Eastern Europe. State capture has also spread to many countries that had once seemed to be resilient democracies or, in the case of transition countries, on a secure path toward democratization.
Topic:
Corruption, Democratization, Inequality, Post-Soviet Space, and State Capture
Political Geography:
Eastern Europe