Clans, cliques and captured states: rethinking ‘transition’ in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractInformal systems of relationships may be the most appropriate unit of analysis for understanding the patterns of development of many aspects of corruption, organized crime, markets, and the state. The lack of attention to informal systems can produce unanticipated and undesired outcomes in reform and foreign aid efforts. Focussing on economies in transition, this paper will (i) review pertinent literature on informal groups and networks and states since the fall of communism; (ii) discuss the applicability of conventional models to them; and (iii) examine the social organization of states and pose questions to help analyze and compare the role of informal systems in shaping states.

The politics of health technology assessment in Poland

“…The nature of direct strategies -establishing social networks with a potential to foster sympathetic attitudes towards evaluated drugswas similar to those used to influence regulatory scientists in the pre-2004 EU by [12,22,25]. However, these mechanisms seem to be particularly important in Poland due to the frequent contrast between formal rules and informal practices [46][47][48].…”

“…This is because AHTAPol staff and a group of advisory firms developing HTA reports submitted together with reimbursement applications constituted a small and tightly knit "social circle" (środowisko) [46,47]. The public affairs director at a pharmaceutical company asserted: "That the AHTAPol and commercial HTA agencies are one social milieu is an open secret."…”

Party politics after the colour revolutions: party institutionalisation and democratisation in Ukraine and Georgia

“…Third, the prevalence of patron-clientelism impacts levels of systemness. In the FSU republics, a variety of the clientelist model -clan politics -has been used to explain the social organisation linking political and business elites (Wedel 2003;Sidikov 2004;Kuzio 2005;Way 2005;Melnykovska and Schweickert 2008). The concentration of resources in the hands of just a few after the fall of the USSR created oligarchic societies in Eastern Europe, and oligarchic clans have a large stake in political and economic change.…”

Offshore gas intermediary companies in Eurasia

“…The third approach explores the role of networks as a mechanism for conducting transactions between markets and bureaucratic regulation, usurping the state. Several studies have analysed networks comprised of formal state actors using their positions to collude with transnational actors for financial gain (Cummings 2005;Jones Luong 2002;Jonson 1998;Wedel 2003), while other studies focused on indigenous clan structures in the Caucasus and Central Asia that operated in parallel with the formal structures (Collins 2005(Collins , 2006Mirimanova 2006;Ilkhamov 2007;Schatz 2004).…”