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

... referring to informal problem-solving though networks of friends OUTSIDE of institutions, which works to UNDERMINE 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 that, to a significant extent, the behavioral patterns she describes were already formed under the Soviet regime, and that ...