Ten Years After the Soviet Breakup: A Mixed Record, An Uncertain Future

Issue Date October 2001
Volume 12
Issue 4
Page Numbers 87-94
file Print
arrow-down-thin Download from Project MUSE
external View Citation

Read the full essay here.

Despite huge changes, the events of the last ten years raise doubts about the notion of “democratic transition” itself.

About the Author

Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, is professor of political science at Stanford University, director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. His most recent book is From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia (2018).

View all work by Michael McFaul

Further Reading

Volume 10, Issue 3

The Churchill Hypothesis

Review of Democracy and Its Alternatives: Understanding Post-Communist Societies, by Richard Rose, William Mishler, and Christian Haerpfer. 

Volume 13, Issue 1

Slovenia’s Smooth Transition

The story of this small former Yugoslav republic offers an example of how—if circumstances are right—it may be possible for a country to reform its way out of communism and…

Volume 16, Issue 2

The End of Postcommunism in Romania

The 2004 elections saw the defeat of the former communists who ruled Romania for most of the period since the fall of communism. Will the country's new, democratic, and pro-European…