COVID-19 Update: NED is continuing to operate during this worldwide health emergency, and to make grants in support of democracy.
However, our office is closed to the public and all in-person events and meetings have been postponed, cancelled or are occurring virtually.

Economic Reform and Democracy: Beyond Shock Therapy

Issue Date April 1995
Volume 6
Issue 2
Page Numbers 102-12
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Read the full essay here.

About the Author

Padma Desai is Gladys and Roland Harriman Professor of Comparative Economic Systems at Columbia University and the author of The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects (1987) and Perestroika in Perspective: The Design and Dilemmas of Soviet Reform (1989).

View all work by Padma Desai

Further Reading

Volume 18, Issue 2

Another Russia? Putin’s Invented Opposition

The Kremlin's ultimate need for democratic legitimacy, both at home and abroad, may be the key vulnerability of the Putin regime.

Volume 22, Issue 2

Paradoxes of the New Authoritarianism

Why are the unfree regimes of the former Soviet world proving so durable? A lack of ideology and—perhaps surprisingly—a degree of openness are proving to be not so much problems…

Volume 23, Issue 3

Putinism Under Siege: The Strange Alliance of Democrats and Nationalists

One of the most striking and unexpected features of the recent demonstrations in Russia was the partnership of liberals and nationalists in the ranks of the protesters.