How Russia’s ‘Sistema’ Leads To The ‘Modernization Trap’

... institutions. Using best friends to solve specific problems is not common in American Government, though it does happen occasionally. Robert Kennedy's role in the Cuban Missile Crisis is a classic example. In a conversation I had with Ledeneva she agreed ... ... were already formed under the Soviet regime, and that the sistema as it exists today is a direct legacy of the Soviet sistema. Georgi Arbatov's book which,like hers, is also entitled The System (Человек Системы), complements her argument....