Table of Contents

Introduction

PART I. State- and institution-building — a framework for analysis

Chapter 1: The state and state-building definitions and debates
The state and state-building
Fiscal perspectives on the state
Regimes and states: the missing link in the transition debate
Potential contributions of post-Soviet cases to general theories of state-building

Chapter 2: A framework for assessing states: size, capacity, and quality
The three aspects of the state
States as problems and solutions under various regimes
The size of the state
State capacity: decision-making, implementation, and control

Chapter 3: The dynamic of change: state-building as institution building
State-building as institutional change –deterioration and re-building
The costs and risks of institutional change
Types of institutional change
The importance of formal-informal discrepancies

Chapter 4: A model of post-Soviet state-building trajectories
The casual model
Individual and casual factors
Four state-building trajectories
Summary

PART II. State-building in Ukraine

Chapter 5: State-building in the post-Soviet region
The Soviet state and its fiscal system
Institutional deterioration: perestroika and the break-up of the Soviet Union
State-building in the post-Soviet ‘universe’
Exploring some quantitative relationships: level of development and political consolidation
Summary

Chapter 6: From Soviet breakdown to disordered independence
From Soviet republic to independent Ukraine
The great depression: economic crisis after independence
The challenge of nation-building
Struggles for power and institutional weakness
A fiscal system in crisis
The first steps of state-building

Chapter 7: A new trajectory taking shape
Economic stabilization and virtualization
The bid for presidential consolidation
State-society relations – the rise of political-business groups and weak democratic accountability
External factors
Stabilizing the fiscal system
Shaping and distorting the new state

Chapter 8: The second transition
From hybrid regime to unconsolidated democracy
Economic recovery and socio-economic policies of the new government
The power of civil society and the continuing importance of opaque groups
External influences on the rise
Fiscal developments: reforms and revelations
From Kuchma to Yushenko: Re-tooling the state
Summary: the state-building process in Ukraine as reflected in the fiscal system

Section 4
Chapter 9: Averting institutional change: the case of Belarus
Political developments: from liberalization to democracy
Economic developments: preserving the command economy
Belarus’ international situation
State-society relations in Belarus
Fiscal policies
Belarus: the strong state that does not want to be a state

PART III.
Chapter 10: Lithuania: Moving towards a Western model
Political developments: early elite re-configuration and after
Economic developments: the great leap from communism to capitalism
State-society relations in Lithuania
Fiscal and budgetary system
State capacity and its determinants in Lithuania

Chapter 11: The ‘authoritarianizing’ route to recovery: the case of Russian tax reform
The stage: political power and oligarchic groups
The economic background to reform
State-society relations
Fiscal crisis and tax reform: surveying explanations
From drag to leap: the gestation and eventual success of tax reform
From prolonged deterioration to unfinished recovery: the Russian path of state-building

Chapter 12: Conclusion

Appendix
Bibliography

About the Author

Verena Fritz is a research fellow with the Overseas Development Institute in London. She works and publishes on state-building, governance (including public financial management), and corruption from a comparative perspective – with a special interest in countries of the former Soviet Union.