Building Business in Post-Communist Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia: Collective Goods, Selective Incentives, and Predatory States
Cambridge University Press, 2/18/2013
EAN 9781107030169, ISBN10: 1107030161
Hardcover, 267 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Prior to 1989, the communist countries of Eastern Europe and the USSR lacked genuine employer and industry associations. After the collapse of communism, industry associations mushroomed throughout the region. Duvanova argues that abusive regulatory regimes discourage the formation of business associations and poor regulatory enforcement tends to encourage associational membership growth. Academic research often treats special interest groups as vehicles of protectionism and non-productive collusion. This book challenges this perspective with evidence of market-friendly activities by industry associations and their benign influence on patterns of public governance. Careful analysis of cross-national quantitative data spanning more than 25 countries, and qualitative examination of business associations in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Croatia, shows that postcommunist business associations function as substitutes for state and private mechanisms of economic governance. These arguments and empirical findings put the long-standing issues of economic regulations, public goods and collective action in a new theoretical perspective.
1. Introduction
2. Collective action in adverse business environments
3. Postcommunist business representation in a comparative perspective
4. Business environment and business organization
the quantitative approach
5. What you do is what you are
business associations in action
6. Compulsory vs voluntary membership
7. Conclusions.