Joachim Ahrens, Professor of International Economics, Private University of Applied Sciences, Göttingen, Germany Martin Brusis, Managing Director of the project network 'Institutions and Institutional Change in Postsocialism', University of Munich, Germany Philipp Bürger, Historian and PhD candidate, University of Munich, Institute of Historiography, Germany Fabian Burkhardt, PhD student in political science, Graduate School of East and Southeast European Studies, University of Munich, Germany Adele Del Sordi, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Political Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Julia Grauvogel, Research Fellow, GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany Herman W. Hoen, Professor of International Political Economy, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Leslie Holmes, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Melbourne, Australia Martin Schulze Wessel, Professor for the History of East and Southeast Europe, University of Munich, Germany Martin C. Spechler, Professor of Economics at Indiana University, USA Alfred Sproede, Professor of Slavonic and Baltic Literatures, University of Münster, Germany Christian Timm, PhD student of political science and researcher, Private University of Applied Sciences in Göttingen, Germany Alexei Trochev, Associate Professor for Political Science, Nazarbayev University, Astana, Kazakhstan Christian von Soest, Senior Research Fellow, GIGA German Institute for Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, Germany Oleksandr Zabirko, PhD candidate in East European cultural studies, University of Münster, Germany

List of Tables and FiguresAcknowledgementsNotes on the Contributors1. The Politics of Legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia; Martin Brusis2. Comparing Legitimation Strategies in Post-Soviet Countries; Christian von Soest and Julia Grauvogel3. State Capitalism in Eurasia: A Dual-Economy Approach to Central Asia; Joachim Ahrens, Herman W. Hoen, and Martin C. Spechler4. Legitimation and the Party of Power in Kazakhstan; Adele Del Sordi5. Legitimacy and State-Led Economic Policy in Georgia; Christian Timm6. Legitimacy, Accountability and Discretion of the Russian Courts; Alexei Trochev7. Concepts of the Nation and Legitimation in Belarus; Fabian Burkhardt8. State Programs, Institutions and Memory in Russia; Philipp Bürger9. Cynics, Loyalists, and Rebels in Recent Russian Fiction. Literary Scenarios of Legitimation and the Pursuit of 'Sovereign Democracy'; Alfred Sproede, Oleksandr Zabirko10. Comparative Conclusions: Legitimacy and Legitimation in Eurasian Post-Communist States; Leslie HolmesIndex

Political legitimacy has become a scarce resource in Russia and other post-Soviet states. Their capacity to deliver prosperity has suffered from economic crisis, war in Ukraine and confrontation with the West. Will nationalism and repression enable political regimes to survive? This book studies the politics of legitimation in Post-Soviet Eurasia.