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Protest and the Politics of Blame: The Russian Response to Unpaid Wages
Debra Javeline
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The wage arrears crisis has been one of the biggest problems facing contemporary Russia. At its peak, it has involved some $10 billion worth of unpaid wages and has affected approximately 70 percent of the workforce. Yet public protest in the country has been rather limited. The relative passivity of most Russians in the face of such desperate circumstances is a puzzle for students of both collective action and Russian politics. In Protest and the Politics of Blame, Debra Javeline shows that to understand the Russian public's reaction to wage delays, one must examine the ease or difficulty of attributing blame for the crisis.
Previous studies have tried to explain the Russian response to economic hardship by focusing on the economic, organizational, psychological, cultural, and other obstacles that prevent Russians from acting collectively. Challenging the conventional wisdom by testing these alternative explanations with data from an original nationwide survey, Javeline finds that many of the alternative explanations come up short. Instead, she focuses on the need to specify blame among the dizzying number of culprits and potential problem solvers in the crisis, including Russia's central authorities, local authorities, and enterprise managers. Javeline shows that understanding causal relationships drives human behavior and that specificity in blame attribution for a problem influences whether people address that problem through protest.
Debra Javeline is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rice University.
Previous studies have tried to explain the Russian response to economic hardship by focusing on the economic, organizational, psychological, cultural, and other obstacles that prevent Russians from acting collectively. Challenging the conventional wisdom by testing these alternative explanations with data from an original nationwide survey, Javeline finds that many of the alternative explanations come up short. Instead, she focuses on the need to specify blame among the dizzying number of culprits and potential problem solvers in the crisis, including Russia's central authorities, local authorities, and enterprise managers. Javeline shows that understanding causal relationships drives human behavior and that specificity in blame attribution for a problem influences whether people address that problem through protest.
Debra Javeline is Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rice University.
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Cover
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Title
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Copyright
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Dedication
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Contents
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Figures
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Tables
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Acknowledgments
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Introduction
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The Crisis
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The Reaction
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The Puzzle
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The Structure of This Book
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Chapter 1. Why Blame Attribution Matters for Protest
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Explanations for Protest and Passivity in Russia
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Issue Difficulty and Blame Attribution
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Blame Attribution and Collective Action Theory
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The Importance of Blame Attribution for Human Behavior
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What is a “Normal” Amount of Protest?
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How Much Protest Is There in Russia?
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What We Can Learn from Individual-Level Data
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Conclusion
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Chapter 2. Wage Arrears in Russia: A Difficult Issue
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The Role of the Central Authorities
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The Role of Regional and Local Authorities
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The Role of Enterprises and Enterprise Managers
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The Role of the General Economic Situation and the Transition Period
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The Role of International Organizations and Foreign Governments
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The Role of the Russian People
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Other Sources of Wage Arrears
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Specifying Blameworthy Individuals and Institutions
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Blame-Avoiding Strategies
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Blame-Avoiding Institutions and Circumstances
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Conclusion
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Chapter 3. Whom Russians Blame for Wage Arrears
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Multicausality and Information Overload
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Measuring the Attribution of Blame
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Blame Cast Widely and Inconsistently
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No Clear Saviors or Solutions
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What Explains the Attribution of Blame?
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Conclusion
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Chapter 4. The Politics of Blame
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Protesting Wage Arrears
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Blame Attribution and Individual Responses to Wage Arrears
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Blame Attribution and Group Responses to Wage Arrears
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Feedback: Protest's Influence on Blame Attribution
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Conclusion
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Chapter 5. Alternative Explanations for the Russian Response to Wage Arrears
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Economic Arguments
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Psychological Arguments
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Cultural Arguments
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Organizational Arguments
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Opportunities and Constraints
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Other Explanations for Protest and Passivity
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The Robust Relationship Between Blame and Protest
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Conclusion
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Chapter 6. Implications
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The Study of Blame Attribution and Collective Action Theory
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Blame and Protest in Comparative Perspective
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The Unlikeliness of Social Unrest in Russia
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Alcoholism, Depression, and Learned Helplessness
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Scapegoating and Demagoguery
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Appendix A. How the Survey Was Conducted
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Appendix B. Survey Questions
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References
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Index
Citable Link
Published: 2003
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
- 978-0-472-02477-3 (ebook)
- 978-0-472-11306-4 (hardcover)