Russia's Economics - Resources vs. Modernisation

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved

Course Description Version:5.00

Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:30:00

Study Course Information
Course Code:		PZK_177		LQF level:		Level 7
Credit Points:		5.00		ECTS:		7.50
Branch of Science:		Politics		Target Audience:		Political Science
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:		Kārlis Bukovskis
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:		Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:		Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		10	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		20
Classes (count)		10	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		20
Total Contact Hours								40
Part-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		7	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		14
Classes (count)		7	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		14
Total Contact Hours								28
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
Overall knowledge of the methods and theories in the field of International Relations, as well as general knowledge of Russian political history.
Objective:
To provide knowledge on the political and economic aspects of the Russian Federation, the use of resources and challenges of modernisation of the economy and society related to that.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introduction. Political Economy as discipline: Terms, principles, ideas			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
2	International Political Economy as discipline: Terms, principles, ideas			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
3	Economic history of Russia			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
4	Perpetual transitions: Economic systems in Russia the 20th century			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
5	Natural-resource-based economy: case of the Russian Federation			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
6	Economic governance principles in the 21st century Russia			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
7	The fiscal policy of the Russian Federation in the 21st century			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
8	The monetary policy of the Russian Federation in the 21st century			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
9	Politics of external trade of Russia: unilateralism, bilateralism and multilateralism. G8, G20, WTO, OPEC			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
10	Politics of outward and inward capital flows. Foreign direct investments in Russia			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
11	Russia’s economic relations with the European Union and its member states			Classes		2.00	auditorium
12	Russia’s economic relations with the United States			Classes		1.00	auditorium
13	Russia’s economic relations with China			Classes		1.00	auditorium
14	Russia’s economic relations in the Eurasian Economic Union			Classes		1.00	auditorium
15	Russia’s economic relations with OPEC			Classes		1.00	auditorium
16	Role of military industry in Russian economy			Classes		1.00	auditorium
17	Economic sanctions as an instrument of political influence on and by Russia			Classes		1.00	auditorium
18	Territory as resource and vulnerability. Protection of resources			Classes		1.00	auditorium
19	Russia’s economic modernisation – a way forward			Classes		1.00	auditorium
Topic Layout (Part-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introduction. Political Economy as discipline: Terms, principles, ideas			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
2	International Political Economy as discipline: Terms, principles, ideas			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
3	Economic history of Russia			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
4	Perpetual transitions: Economic systems in Russia the 20th century			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
5	Natural-resource-based economy: case of the Russian Federation			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
6	Economic governance principles in the 21st century Russia			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
7	The fiscal policy of the Russian Federation in the 21st century			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
8	The monetary policy of the Russian Federation in the 21st century			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
9	Politics of external trade of Russia: unilateralism, bilateralism and multilateralism. G8, G20, WTO, OPEC			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
10	Politics of outward and inward capital flows. Foreign direct investments in Russia			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
11	Russia’s economic relations with the European Union and its member states			Classes		1.00	auditorium
12	Russia’s economic relations with the United States			Classes		1.00	auditorium
13	Russia’s economic relations with China			Classes		1.00	auditorium
14	Russia’s economic relations in the Eurasian Economic Union			Classes		1.00	auditorium
15	Russia’s economic relations with OPEC			Classes		1.00	auditorium
16	Role of military industry in Russian economy			Classes		0.50	auditorium
17	Economic sanctions as an instrument of political influence on and by Russia			Classes		0.50	auditorium
18	Territory as resource and vulnerability. Protection of resources			Classes		0.50	auditorium
19	Russia’s economic modernisation – a way forward			Classes		0.50	auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
During the module students will prepare for the seminars, read literature, write a report and prepare a presentation. The aim of a seminar is to develop students' ability to argue and present their opinion in a consistent and logical manner; to promote activity; to test students’ knowledge of the topic and materials in question. The aim of the report is to develop the ability to identify the key issue of the topic; to identify and evaluate alternative arguments and views; to offer an opinion, explaining and arguing why this particular opinion is better than any other. The report should compare all possible alternatives, considering all their strengths and weaknesses. Another goal is to develop skills to independently study the situation and the problem, give it an assessment and be able to find solutions.
Assessment Criteria:
Attendance and activity during seminars – 40% Presentation of the report – 15% Report – 30% Final exam essay – 15%
Final Examination (Full-Time):		Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):		Exam (Written)
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:		Based on in-depth knowledge of the factors of Russia’s economic structure and key players, students will describe the influence of specific players on Russia's economic processes in the internal and external dimensions (political elite, economic elite, international organizations, international corporations and other actors). Students will analyze current events in the Russian economy in the context of both Russia's domestic and international processes.
Skills:		Working in groups students will select, read and critically evaluate the scientific literature, justify their choice, interpretation and analysis of literature to the group members. When developing individual and group works, students will in person and in writing identify, compare and evaluate alternative arguments and opinions, formulate, explain and argue their perspective on a problem related to the Russian economy.
Competencies:		Students will develop a research work based on the interdisciplinary scientific literature on political economy, analyzing Russia’s economic issues in a historical and regional context. Students will appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of complex problems and combine research results and methods from different fields in analyzing complex problems.
Bibliography
No.	Reference
Required Reading
1	Stilwell, F., 2006, Political Economy: The Contest of Economic Ideas, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-60.
2	Oatley, T., 2019, International Political Economy, 6th ed., New York: Routledge, 24-79.
3	World Bank Group, Russia: Recession And Growth Under The Shadow Of A Pandemic, Russia Economic Report, July 2020, 1-42. Available from: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/…
4	Gregory, P., Stuart, R., 2001, Soviet and Post-Soviet Economic Structure and Performance, 7th ed., Boston: Addison Wesley.
5	Nove, A., 1993, An Economic History of the USSR, 1917-1999, 3rd. ed., Penguin Books.
6	The Russian Economy: Prospects for Putin 4.0, A. Kudors, J. Hermanis (eds.), Centre for East European Policy Studies, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, 125-142.
7	Idrisov, G., Ponomarev, Y., Sinelnikov-Murylev, S., 2016, Terms of trade and Russian economic development, Russian Journal of Economics, 2(3), 279-301.
8	Bozhechkova, A., Kiyutsevskaya, A., Trunin, P., Knobel, A., 2019. Russia’s Monetary Policy in 2018, Published Papers, Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, revised 2019. Available from: https://www.iep.ru/files/RePEc/gai/ppaper/ppaper-2019-960.p…
9	Gurvich, E., Suslina, E., 2020, Fiscal Policy During the Time of the Pandemic, Economic Conversations. Available from: https://econs.online/en/articles/economics/fiscal-policy-du…
10	Högselius, P., 2013, Red Gas. Russia and the Origins of European Energy Dependence, Palgrave Macmillan, 1-42.
11	Starr, F., Dawisha, K., 1996, Economic Transition in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, M.E. Sharpe.
Additional Reading
1	Robert J. Shiller, Maxim Boycko, and Vladimir Korobov. "Popular Attitudes Toward Free Markets: The Soviet Union and the United States Compared." The American Economic Review 81, no. 3 (1991): 385-400.
2	Maxim Boycko, and Robert J. Shiller. "Popular Attitudes toward Markets and Democracy: Russia and United States Compared 25 Years Later." The American Economic Review 106, no. 5 (2016): 224-29.
3	Kevin M. Murphy, Andrei Shleifer, and Robert W. Vishny. "The Transition to a Market Economy: Pitfalls of Partial Reform." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, no. 3 (1992): 889-906.
4	Alexander Gerschenkron. "Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective." In The Sociology of Economic Life, ed. Mark Granovetter and Richard Swedberg, 111-130. Boulder: Westview, 1992.
5	Andrei Shleifer, and Daniel Treisman. Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000), 1-20, 39-51
6	Dani Rodrik. "Understanding Economic Policy Reform." Journal of Economic Literature 34, no. 1 (1996): 9-41.
7	Kathryn Hendley. “Legal Development in Post-Soviet Russia,” Post-Soviet Affairs 13, no. 3 (July-September 1997): 228-251
8	Sergei Guriev, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya. "(Un)Happiness in Transition." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 23, no. 2 (2009): 143-68.
9	Roland Gérard. "The Political Economy of Transition." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 16, no. 1 (2002): 29-50.
10	B. Black, R. Kraakman and A. Tarassova, “Russian Privatization and Corporate Governance: What Went Wrong?,” Stanford Law Review 52, no. 6 (July 2000): 1731-1808
11	Vadim Volkov. "Violent Entrepreneurship in Post-Communist Russia." Europe-Asia Studies 51, no. 5 (1999): 741-54
12	Daniel Treisman. “Russia Renewed?” Foreign Affairs (November-December 2000).  Available from: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20021101faessay9992/daniel-tr…
13	Stephen Kotkin. "The Resistible Rise of Vladimir Putin: Russia's Nightmare Dressed Like a Daydream." Foreign Affairs 94, no. 2 (2015): 140-53.
14	Rodrik, D., & World Bank. (2006). Goodbye Washington Consensus, Hello Washington Confusion? A Review of the World Bank's "Economic Growth in the 1990s: Learning from a Decade of Reform". Journal of Economic Literature, 44(4), 973-987.
15	Andrei Shleifer, and Daniel Treisman. "A Normal Country: Russia after Communism." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19, no. 1 (2005): 151-74.
16	Anders Aslund (2010): Gazprom: Challenged Giant in Need of Reform, in: Russia After the Global Economic Crisis; Chapter 7
17	Thane Gustafson. "Putin's Petroleum Problem: How Oil Is Holding Russia Back—and How It Could Save It." Foreign Affairs 91, no. 6 (2012): 83-96.
18	V. Dobrynskaya and E. Turkisch, “Economic Diversification and Dutch Disease in Russia,” Post-Communist Economies 22, no. 3 (2010), 283-302.
19	Sergi, Bruno S. and Berezin, Andrey (2018). Oil and Gas Industry’s Technological and Sustainable Development: Where Does Russia Stand? In Bruno S. Sergi (Ed.) Exploring the Future of Russia’s Economy and Markets: Towards Sustainable Economic Development (pp. 161-182). Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.
20	Sergei Guriev, and Andrei Rachinsky. "The Role of Oligarchs in Russian Capitalism." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 19, no. 1 (2005): 131-50.
21	Daniel Treisman. "Russia's Billionaires." The American Economic Review 106, no. 5 (2016): 236-41.
22	Chaim Shinar (2015). “The Russian Oligarchs, from Yeltsin to Putin.” European Review 23 (4): pp. 583-596.
23	Padma Desai. (2005). “Russian Retrospectives on Reforms from Yeltsin to Putin.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (1): pp. 87–106.
24	Keith Darden, and Anna Grzymala-Busse. "The Great Divide: Literacy, Nationalism, and the Communist Collapse." World Politics 59, no. 1 (2006): 83-115.
25	Henry E. Hale. "The Makeup and Breakup of Ethnofederal States: Why Russia Survives Where the USSR Fell." Perspectives on Politics 3, no. 1 (2005): 55-70.
26	Oxana Shevel. "Russian Nation-building from Yel'tsin to Medvedev: Ethnic, Civic or Purposefully Ambiguous?" Europe-Asia Studies 63, no. 2 (2011): 179-202.
27	Ivan Krastev, and Mark Leonard. "Europe's Shattered Dream of Order: How Putin Is Disrupting the Atlantic Alliance." Foreign Affairs 94, no. 3 (2015): 48-58.
28	Mary Elizabeth Malinkin (8/10/2014): Russia: The World Second Largest Immigration Heaven, The National Interest http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/russia-the-worlds…- immigration-haven
29	Graham Allison, Dimitri K. Simes (4/20/15): Russia and America: Stumbling to War, The National Interest http://nationalinterest.org/feature/russia-america-stumblin…
30	Sergei Guriev. "Russia's Constrained Economy: How the Kremlin Can Spur Growth." Foreign Affairs 95, no. 3 (2016): 18-22.
31	Sergei Guriev, and Daniel Treisman. "Informational Autocrats." The Journal of Economic Perspectives 33, no. 4 (2019): 100-27.
32	Clifford Gaddy, and Fiona Hill. The Great Errors. In: Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners Left Russia Out in the Cold. : Brookings Institution Press, Ch1, 2
33	Allison Graham (2020). “The New Spheres of Influence Sharing the Globe with Other Great Powers.” Foreign Affairs (March/April 2020).