Browsing by Subject "Russia"
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Item A comparison of university students, faculty, and industry assessments of characteristics and skills necessary for a successful career in restaurant and hotel management by American and Russian hospitality graduates(Texas Tech University, 2004-05) Annaraud, Katerina DThe purpose of this dissertation was to determine the skills sets necessary for career success by hospitality students upon graduation. Multiple studies were conducted in the United States and in Russia in order to determine what skills and characteristics future hospitality managers need to possess. However, hospitality education is a relatively new university discipline in Russia and does not have a long history in comparison with the United States. This research study compares the assessments of American and Russian hospitality students, faculty, and industry. Respondents included hospitality students, hospitality faculty, and hospitality industry representatives in Texas (USA) and St. Petersburg (Russia). Students and faculty from major universities in Texas and Russia participated in the study as well as general managers and recruiters from restaurants and hotels in Russia and the USA. The instrument for this study was developed by Su, Miller, and Shanklin (1997). The instrument was modified and tested using two pilot studies. The results of the study indicated that respondents in both countries believe that human relations characteristics and skills are the most important trait hospitality managers need to possess, followed by conceptual characteristics and skiils and technical skills. Respondents in both countries valued the importance of work experience however students and faculty members in Russia had much less actual practical experience than American students and faculty members. Russian university need to offer additional assistance to students and faculty members to support their acquisition of industry practical experience, analyze the hospitality educational experience of such countries as the United States, and build international partnership.Item “A cousinly resemblance” : negotiating identity in literature of Russia and the U.S. South(2016-05) Leachman, Julianna Lee; Hutchison, Coleman, 1977-; Kuzmic, Tatiana; Bremen, Brian; Livers, Keith; Pesenson, MichaelFollowing Carson McCullers’ 1941 declaration that “there is surely a cousinly resemblance” between Russian literature and literature of the U.S. South, this dissertation examines that affinity, revealing that understandings of identity in both Russia and the U.S. South have been shaped by their historic marginalization by the dominant cultural centers of Europe and the U.S. North, respectively. This oppositional definition of identity, which has labeled Russians and southerners as inferior “others” against which those in the cultural centers define themselves, has led to a cultural hybridity that wavers between allegiance to a conservative, defensive self-definition of superiority to the dominant culture and a more cosmopolitan identity that seeks to integrate fully with a multicultural and multinational global culture. Scholarly dialogue surrounding issues of regional and national identity, from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s conception of “minor literature” to Homi Bhabha’s understanding of “minority discourse” to Edward Said’s ruminations on exile and postcolonial identity, inform my study of Russian and southern identity. Through a comparative analysis grounded in literary-historical and cultural studies, I examine literary texts by three Russian writers and three writers from the U.S. South, spanning more than a one hundred year period from 1842 to 1955. Attending closely to works by Andrei Platonov, Nikolai Gogol, Fyodor Dostoevsky, William Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor, and Carson McCullers, this dissertation seeks to answer questions of authority and authenticity regarding the stories of Russia and the U.S. South. By insisting on a reevaluation of traditional accounts of regional or national narratives, the authors considered here demand to know who or what gets to belong to these narratives, and by whose standards.Item A NEW COLD WAR? A RESURGENT RUSSIA AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR REGIONAL AND GLOBAL SECURITYTanner, Ashley N.; Ehlers, Robert S; Dailey, Jeffrey D; Taylor, William A; Lamberson, Christine MRecent events in Eastern Europe and the Middle East have prompted world leaders to opine that the world is entering a new Cold War. These concerns are based on the recent invasions of Crimea and Ukraine, action in Syria, Russian rhetoric, and military posturing by both sides. Russian history, strategy, and strategic culture provide context for the current state of affairs. These do not, however, guarantee that the present implementation of strategy will mirror the past and that the goals are to return to a Soviet-style, Cold War-era, bipolar world order. The issue is more complex then our own cognitive biases have allowed us to comprehend. Russia is resurgent and does pose a threat to stability, but its goal is neither a Cold War nor a hot war. Rather, it seeks to be treated as an equal and to reassert a greater level of control and influence over its former lands.Item Are HIV prevention programs effective in addressing rising HIV/AIDS rates among Central Asian labor migrants?(2011-05) Fleming, Thomas Rolland; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-; Weinreb, AlexanderWithin the last ten years HIV rates in Central Asia have more than quadrupled amongst the general population. Labor migrants from the region who are working in Russia are considered at high risk of HIV infection due to risky sexual practices. Similar behavior has been documented among labor migrants in sub Saharan Africa. By reviewing medical data and literature written by international health professionals in both regions, I analyze the chain of sexual contact of labor migrants within female partners that contribute to the spread of HIV from Russia to the general population within Central Asia. I use Tajikistan as a case study. The findings of this study recommend that existing behavior modification strategies need to recognize existing gender structures when addressing at risk populations. They must also emphasize collaboration with community religious leaders and civil society organizations to promote effective and appropriate HIV/AIDS education efforts in order to curb the growing prevalence rates among male labor migrants in Central Asia.Item Between cosmopolitanism and nationalism : print, national identity, and the literary public sphere in the 1920s Petersburg and Buenos Aires(2010-05) Potoplyak, Marina; Lindstrom, Naomi, 1950-; Garza, Thomas J.; Levine, Madeline G.; Richmond-Garza, Elizabeth M.; Shumway, NicolasIn Russia and Argentina modernism arrived well before the advent of socioeconomic modernization, and found societies with restricted civil liberties, only nascent middle classes, and virtually non-existent public spheres. Despite these factors, within a span of some fifty years, Petersburg and Buenos Aires turned into vibrant literary capitals rivaling London, New York, and Paris as centers of literary modernism. This dissertation offers a new understanding of the period by exposing the critical role of publishers and cultural patrons in this extraordinary cultural advancement. I argue that they were able to reformulate their countries’ historically ambivalent positions vis-à-vis Western European civilization by working closely with avant-garde literary groups and viii promoting their literary works that combined sometimes contending, sometimes complementary cosmopolitanism and nationalism. My analysis of the interrelated processes of the development of print culture, national identity, and the literary public sphere in Russia and Argentina is informed by Benedict Anderson’s thinking about nationalism and print culture, Pierre Bourdieu’s treatment of publishers as key participants in cultural production, and the concept of the public sphere as seen by Jürgen Habermas. Close reading of select literary works of the 1920s shows that Russian and Argentine “peripheral” experiences, once transformed into artistic creation, became consonant with cultural practices of international modernism precisely because they combined both cosmopolitan and nationalist tendencies. Each of the writers considered—Jorge Luis Borges, Roberto Arlt, Veniamin Kaverin, and Konstantin Fedin—was able to formulate highly original and yet unmistakably national response to modernity. Following the writers’ trajectories from early literary experiments to the works of the late 1920s, when they renounced their youthful deviations and joined the literary (and sometimes even political) establishment, I show how these literary texts renegotiated the issues of national identity by reworking diverse and often “foreign” literary traditions into authentically Russian and Argentine prose.Item Contingency on the Korean peninsula : collapse to unification(2010-05) O, Tara C.; Galbraith, James K.A collapsed North Korea would pose a momentous test to the future of the region. The five regional powers—South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States—are ill-prepared for such an event, partly because of the act of planning for it would upset North Korea. However, the potential challenges of a collapse are too great to ignore. This study presents an historical and political analysis of the increasing risk that North Korea may collapse. A comparison with earlier cases suggests that triggers and indicators of collapse can be identified, including increasing cross-border information flows, defections, and the possible death or incapacitation of North Korea’s leader. Further, the large and growing economic disparity between North Korea and its neighbors, South Korea and China, points to likely consequences of collapse, including possible mass migration. The study then examines the roles of South Korea, China, the U.S., Japan, and Russia in the future of the Korean peninsula; it concludes with a further consideration of the paradox of collapse planning, but argues that it would be better to run the risks entailed in the exercise than to be caught flatfooted when a collapse occurs. The analysis is based on interviews, surveys, and documents in English and Korean.Item The cornered bear : the August 2008 war in Georgia as the culmination of Russia’s western security dilemma(2012-12) Ellett, Matthew Hayden; Barany, Zoltan D.; Jordan, Bella BIn 2008 Russia surprised the West by going to war with Georgia. While several analyses have pointed to separate actions by NATO and the West as having influenced the 2008 war, this paper endeavors to show that the combined actions of the West and NATO since the fall of the Soviet Union created a security dilemma for Russia. Because the West refused to properly acknowledge and address Russia’s dilemma, the West inadvertently created the conditions which led to the culmination of Russia’s security dilemma in the form of an invasion of Georgia. Russia’s war with Georgia was less an attempt to protect Russian citizens and prevent atrocities as it was a rebuttal of Western actions. This thesis examines the security dilemma and cooperation theories as presented by Dr. Robert Jervis, and looks specifically at Western-Russian relations relating to three spheres: NATO expansion and Western marginalization of Russia, Western unilateral and extra-U.N. military aggression, and Western anti-ballistic missile defense initiatives and programs. Western actions relating to these three spheres created the conditions for the war, and specifics within the Caucasus region and relating to separatist conflicts drove Russia to deem a war with Georgia a politically safe rebuttal to the West. This paper also examines continued Western refusal to acknowledge Russia’s dilemma and developing conditions, as they relate to the three spheres of NATO expansion, unilateral military action and missile defenses, which could potentially lead to further conflict between Russia and the West.Item The cry of the wolf : Islamism in Post-Soviet Chechnya(2015-08) Jimenez, Justin Daniel; Garza, Thomas J.; Neuburger, MaryChechnya today has been operationalized as a hub of Islamic radicalism that threatens a global jihad force. How did this region become a link in terrorist networks such as Al Qaeda? And how did a Chechen nationalist movement transform into a jihad against Russia and the West? Islamic radicalism in Post-Soviet Chechnya is the product of many factors, chief among them notions of historical determinism, a legacy of conflict and oppression, and political volatility. Consequently, this report utilizes a historical and political approach in order to present a clear and complete understanding of Islamism's rise and growth in Chechnya. Russo-Chechen relations have long preceded today's insurgency and counterinsurgency operations in Chechnya, and Islam has always played a crucial role in this history. The Russo-Chechen narrative is thus key to understanding the development of Islamism in Chechnya. Chapters 1 and 2 delineate this history and expound upon notions of historical determinism, helping to contextualize Islamism in contemporary Chechnya. There are also a host of politically contingent factors contributing to Islamic radicalism in Chechnya, particularly Putin's use of soft authoritarianism in the Caucasus. These factors are examined in Chapter 3. Taken in sum, this historico-political approach aims to trace the development of political Islam in Chechnya and shed light on the consequences of this phenomenon, as they relate to today's growing network of global Islamism and the future of Chechen jihad.Item Cultural differences in advertising and their influence on advertising attractiveness(2012-05) Basenko, Evgeniya; Atkinson, Lucinda; Mackert, MichaelThis study compares the cultural values that manifest themselves in beer-centered television advertisements in Russia and in the United States. The study intends to give an exploratory overview of the main appeals employed in the advertisements and discusses the observed differences and similarities found within. The purpose of my research is to discover whether the more culturally congruent advertisements are more attractive to the consumers than advertisements with unique foreign values. Individual values are taken into consideration. Lists of most common advertising appeals have been identified. The findings are not generalizable to report a significant positive relationship between cultural congruency and advertising effectiveness. However, the study provides rigorous description of a few cases offering deep insight for possible advertising strategies in multicultural advertising environments.Item Culture in the crucible : Pussy Riot and the politics of art in contemporary Russia(2013-08) Johnston, Rebecca Adeline; Garza, Thomas J.There is a consistent thread throughout Russian history of governmental management of culture. Tsars and Communist bureaucrats alike have sought to variously promote, censor, or exploit writers, filmmakers, and musicians to control and define the country's cultural content. Often, these measures were intended not necessarily to cultivate Russia's aesthetic spirit, but to accomplish specific policy goals. The promotion of a State ideology and other efforts to stave of social unrest were chief among them. With the fall of Soviet power and the loss of an official ideology promoted by the state, the concept of cultural politics fell to the wayside. It has remained largely ignored ever since. Despite numerous high-profile incidents of persecution of the creative class, analysts have not linked them together as part of an overarching cultural policy. However, the Russian government under Vladimir Putin has faced consistent policy challenges since the beginning of the 2000s that could be mitigated through the implementation of such a policy. In some ways, the breadth and character of State involvement in the cultural sphere follows the pattern of the country’s autocratic past. In others, it demonstrates that it has adapted these policies to function in the hybrid regime that Putin has created, as opposed to the totalitarian ones that preceded it. A recent case that exemplifies this new breed of cultural policy is the persecution of the radical feminist punk band Pussy Riot. While largely unknown to many Russian citizens, the group’s overt opposition to the patriarchal model of rule established by Putin with the help of the Russian Orthodox Church was met by the most comprehensive crackdown within the cultural sphere since perestroika. Examining this case in detail can reveal the extent to which the Russian government is concerned about its ability to maintain popular legitimacy. The fact that it has continued to try to manage the cultural sphere may indicate the level of democracy that has or has not been established in Russia so far today.Item Ethnic conflict and its connection to terrorism in the republics of Ingushetia and North Ossetia(2012-08) Osborne, Paul Kenneth; Garza, Thomas J.; Gavin, Francis J.Violence in Russia’s North Caucasus region has not been limited to Chechnya since the early 2000’s. The generally accepted theory on violence in other North Caucasus republics is that it has spilled over from Chechnya and is associated with religious extremism and poverty. There may be other reasons, however, for outbreaks of violence in other North Caucasus republics such as Ingushetia and North Ossetia. The North Ossetians and Ingush have had a tense relationship since the late Tsarist period. Disputes over a region known as the Prigorodny region has fueled ethnic hatreds and resulted in an armed conflict between the two republics in 1992. The relationship remains tense to this day. The conflict may be playing a role in the outbreak of violence in the two republics. Studies have shown that terrorism, while an extreme tactic, is in many cases associated with moderate political demands shared by the terrorists’ community. Additionally, terrorism appears to be often connected with lack of economic opportunity and the need for solidarity rather than simple poverty. The driving forces behind conventional terrorism suggest that Russian policymakers may be misguided in their attempts to combat terrorism in Ingushetia and North Ossetia. Terrorist violence in the region may be an Ingush continuation of ethnic battles fought in 1992, but utilizing extreme guerrilla methods. Exploring the violence in the two republics in the context of an ongoing ethnic conflict may enable policymakers to better tailor anti-terrorism policies in the region.Item Exhumed from asterisks : from commomplace Russian tyrannies to the dark spaces of Bulgakov’s Heart of a dog(2011-05) Flider, Marina; Garza, Thomas J.; Grumberg, KarenFew spaces have been as tyrannically predetermined as St. Petersburg and Soviet Moscow. This paper aims to present a theoretical narrative delineating the tyranny of space through both Russian capitols by examining both Peter the Great’s and Lenin’s predetermined construction of Russian spaces. First will be an examination of the manner in which Peter the Great undercut authentic Russian tradition by replacing historical with European spatial consciousness. In the second chapter, a few case studies from the history of Russian letters will be provided so as to best demonstrate the continuing anxiety of spatial representation plaguing Russian writers through the nineteenth century. Chapter three concerns Lenin’s spatial despotism. In contrast to Peter the Great, who opened Russia (and Russian consciousness) to the West, Lenin will compress space by reclaiming Russia’s capital of old, Moscow. This compression of space is best embodied in the kitsch, micromanagement, and tyranny of the Soviet communal apartment. Finally, the goal is to show the shift from the highly cerebral production of the place that is St. Petersburg to the unconscious social cues that constituted the mapping, reading, and minute control of Soviet spaces as evidenced in the works of Mikhail Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog. By defamiliarizing common spaces, Bulgakov points to Russia’s inability to reconcile space with its national identity.Item Fertility policy in post-Soviet Russia : policy analysis and prescriptions(2011-12) Dow, Kelsey Lynn; Neuburger, Mary, 1966-; Markovits, Inga SRussia has over the past century experienced a phenomenal drop in fertility. In the post-Soviet period, the birth rate per woman has dropped to one of the lowest in the world, and the population continues to age. While aware of the coming demographic crisis since the 1980s, the state has in the last decade publicly acknowledged the problem and begun drafting policy reforms aimed at increasing fertility. These reforms have included: limitations on abortions, parental leave policies, public competitions and campaigns, and direct transfer payments to parents. These generally unsuccessful programs, however, have suffered from a lack of long-term foresight, steady funding, and an acknowledgement of slowing of and recent reversal of population growth. In order to increase fertility and the health of the Russian population, future reforms will need to address the instability of tax inflows in to the federal budget, acknowledge broader infrastructure issues in the Russian economy, and decrease issues of sexual discrimination, misogyny, and abuse.Item From competition to monopoly : establishing party dominance in post-communist Russia(2014-12) White, Allison Christine; Moser, Robert G., 1966-; Lin, Tse-Min; Madrid, Raul; Elkins, Zachary; Trubowitz, Peter; Moraski, BryonWhat explains dominant party emergence and strength and opposition party weakness in Russia? Important structural underpinnings of party dominance, namely a weak party system, were present in Russia even in the 1990s, but it was not until the 2000s that a genuine dominant party emerged, despite Yeltsin‘s attempts to fashion a successful party of power of his own prior to United Russia. I focus on a weak party system as a factor contributing to dominant party emergence, using extensive empirical analyses drawn from original fine-grained data from the case of Russia. I contend that a combination of contingent factors, namely leadership by an individual with political clout, favorable economic developments that allow for patronage politics, and a security situation that allows for centralization of power, as well as decisive structural factors, specifically electoral-geographic conditions ripe for machine politics in the countryside and areas with dense populations of ethnic minorities, have buttressed the dominant party and frozen out the opposition in Russia. My dissertation leverages new dataset that combines fine-grained, county- and region-level data, including county-level election results from five Russian parliamentary elections—1995, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011—and county-level census data on sociodemographic indicators, as well as data on regional contextual characteristics, such as gross regional product and resource dependence, to examine patterns of electoral support for various parties.Item HIV and AIDS in the Russian Federation : prisons as a case study of risk environments and agency(2011-05) Severson, Jamie LeeAnn; Buckley, Cynthia J.; Angel, Jacqueline LThis thesis explores Russian prisons as risk environments for the spread of HIV through intravenous drug use. The Russian HIV epidemic is extremely fast growing, and though exact prevalence rates are unknown, the epidemic is now considered generalized as estimated prevalence rates exceed one percent of the Russian population. After decades of foreign-aid and interventions in African nations have largely failed to address the HIV epidemic, social scientists now attribute HIV infection to risk environments created by low levels of social cohesion and a lack of agency. Within my research, I explore Russian male prisons and the role risk environments and agency play in the spread of HIV. I review recently published literature, government statistics, as well as reports published by non-governmental organizations. I then analyze and interpret these data, draw conclusions and inferences regarding the spread of HIV within Russian prison risk environments.Item May the best manipulator win : 2004 and 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections revisited(2014-05) Smith, Tony Lee; Moser, Robert G.Ukraine is currently in the throes of revolution. Will this popular uprising move Ukraine closer to the West and a democratic government or strengthen the country's ties to Putin and Russia? Viktor Yanukovich's second round victory in the 2004 presidential election was nullified by Ukraine's high court due to rampant electoral manipulation. Viktor Yushchenko, supported by hundreds of thousands of protesters in the 2004 Orange Revolution, became president and ushered in, what many hoped would be, a more democratic government. Infighting and competition among the Orange coalition soon rendered the Yushchenko government ineffective. Ukraine's progression towards democracy slowed and ties to Russia began to flourish once again when Yanukovich became Yushchenko's prime minister. In 2010, Yanukovich was elected president in another second round election against Yulia Tymoshenko that observers and academics deemed free and fair. Unfortunately, a new evaluation of both the 2004 and 2010 elections presents a much less encouraging view of Ukrainian politics. As shown in this paper, electoral manipulation was present in both the 2004 and 2010 elections. Additionally, both parties participated in manipulatory behavior in both elections. This finding challenges much of the academic literature to date on Ukrainian politics. In support of this finding of corruption by multiple candidates, a unique list experiment was administered to raion (county) level administrators in Ukraine. These administrators were asked about their views regarding electoral manipulation. The results of this experiment suggest that these administrators are still very influenced by and, arguably, willing to engage in electoral manipulation. The experiment shows that, at least at the raion level, Ukrainian governance has not become more democratic. Overall, the prognosis for democratization efforts in Ukraine is not good.Item Nicholas B. Vassilieve : modernism in flight(2007-12) Gachot, Richard; Udovički-Selb, DaniloItem The non-commercial objectives of national oil companies(2015-12) McGroary, Lin; Dzienkowski, John S., 1959-; Spence, David B; Taylor, Melinda ENational oil companies (NOCs) play an important role in the international oil and gas industry; collectively NOCs control approximately 90% of worldwide oil reserves. NOC are either wholly or partially owned by their country’s government, and as such can be used as a tool to meet the government’s aims. An NOC can maximize profits, which maximizes revenues to the government, or the government can use the NOC to fulfill its non-commercial goals. This paper focuses on how non-commercial goals affect profitability and make a national oil company more susceptible to corruption. I argue that NOCs that follow non-commercial goals are less likely to be successful commercially; however there are different non-commercial goals that affect commerciality differently. NOCs that follow specific non-commercial goals, such as economic development, are also more susceptible to corruption, this is because these goals lend themselves to governments that are trying to establish political legitimacy. I look at case studies of six different countries (Saudi Arabia, China, Norway, Venezuela, Nigeria and Russia), and their associated NOCs, to establish how non-commercial goals affect the NOCs. Other factors also affect the commerciality of NOCs; factors such as the legal framework of the country, and whether regulations are well established. I conclude by comparing the national oil companies and their non-commercial objectives and exploring the differences between the companies.Item Petropolitics and foreign policy : fiscal and institutional origins and patterns of Russian foreign policy, 1964-2012(2014-08) Weber, Yuval; Trubowitz, Peter; Moser, Robert G., 1966-Russian foreign policy from the mid-1960s has vacillated between periods of expansion and retrenchment in which the military and diplomatic reach of the state has extended to continents or been retracted to very modest conceptions of national defense. During this period, the financial centrality of energy exports has come to dominate the Russian economy, leading scholars and observers to draw a causal link between the two: as energy revenues go up, expansionism does as well, while declines in revenues lead Russia to behave less assertively. This dissertation outlines an alternative argument for petrostate foreign policy in which positive or negative revenue environments determine the menu of policy options available to policymakers, but that internal politics determine the content of those foreign policy choices. I argue that foreign policy choices are conditional on the mediating political institutions and circumstances existing at the time of booms and busts, namely that how energy revenue shocks affect foreign policy decision-making in a petrostate after a revenue shock depends on the political environment before the shock. The petropolitics foreign policy theory thus provides insight as to when the expansionism might occur. By focusing on revenue yet allowing politicians to retain agency, this “petropolitics” foreign policy theory links structural theories of foreign policy to leadership-driven models of political decision-making. This petropolitics theory then reassesses Russian foreign policy by analyzing leadership tenures from Leonid Brezhnev to Vladimir Putin. I show that Soviet expansionism in the Third World in the 1970s was not simply because of a positive revenue shock, but because of Brezhnev’s political weakness after his installation in a palace coup. Similarly, I show that Mikhail Gorbachev’s retrenchment of foreign policy commitments arose not solely from a lack of energy revenues, but from his political strength in light of the poor performance of his predecessors. Finally, I show that Vladimir Putin’s selective expansionism and retrenchment emerges in a skillful consolidation of domestic political strength, a fortuitous influx of energy revenues, and a willingness to change foreign policy strategies to serve a single preference of maintaining power.Item Post-Soviet super-presidentialism : explaining constitutional choice in Russia and Ukraine(2013-12) Goodnow, Regina Rose; Moser, Robert G., 1966-The Russian and Ukrainian constitutions—like those in many other post-Soviet states—have concentrated political power in exclusive “super” presidencies. However, the concentration of power has persisted in only one of the two cases. Russian presidential authority was resilient in the face of attempts to increase legislative strength in the 1990s, even when severe economic and political crises undermined the presidency of Boris Yeltsin. In contrast, Ukrainian presidential power fluctuated over time, with “Orange Revolution” constitutional reforms shifting power to the parliament in 2004 and their annulment returning power to the president in 2010. What explains the different trajectories of Russia’s and Ukraine’s presidential systems? Using process-tracing to parse out the actions of elites during the 1990s and 2000s in combination with analyses of the electoral foundations of elite competition in the two cases, this dissertation develops an argument about the origins of super-presidential systems and the prospects for constitutional change in such systems. Concentrated executive power in Russia and Ukraine: (1) depended on elites’ preferences for more or less concentrated political authority; (2) these preferences depended on how elites perceived their political prospects for capturing and holding presidential power; (3) elites’ perceptions of their prospects for gaining and holding presidential power were conditioned by the relative balance of power between major political forces; and (4) this balance of power was very vulnerable to pressure from social forces. It was this final factor that distinguished the Ukrainian and Russian cases. Ukraine had more balanced political competition because of its coherent ethno-linguistic cleavage, and consequently more uncertainty about rival elites’ political fortunes, which produced challenges to super-presidentialism. Russia’s experience with regional politics, by contrast, has not produced a similarly stable balance of power between rival forces, because the country’s minority groups were too diverse and dispersed to form a unified constituency that could challenge the political dominance of the center. The structural underpinnings of elite competition help to explain why the preferences of self-interested politicians to concentrate or disperse political power changed over time in ways that promoted unstable super-presidentialism in Ukraine compared to much more durable super-presidentialism in Russia.