Governance and the Russian Economy

n his article on fragmentation of authority, Vladimir Brovkin reviews the general character of government and property relations in contemporary Russia and draws some strong conclusions. If his conclusions are correct, the prospects for the Russian economy are poor. In this note, I shall review some of the governance issues that bear on Russian economic prospects and offer not a Panglossian view that all will be well, but an assessment of what developments in the practice of government, corporate governance, and property rights would improve economic prospects. These developments are in my judgment possible, but they are by no means certain to occur in the next few years. The main point I want to make is that national and corporate governance are indeed weak in Russia, and property rights still are dangerously blurred, but the situation is not static. Changes are going on, many of them favorable to future economic growth.