State-Society Relations in Post-Soviet Systems: Trade Unions in Russia

Abstract

Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, an outside observer might have expected state-society relations to change dramatically. However, while some aspects of state-society relations changed, others did not. This variable response to the disintegration of the Soviet Union can be illustrated by comparing Russia and Ukraine in the post-Soviet era. In this chapter, I look at the Russian case in which the state attempted a form of shock therapy or rapid change, while in Chapter six I look at the Ukrainian state, which preferred policies of gradualism or no change at all. State policies varied greatly as did societal responses. Constitutions, legal codes, and property rights all began to change in Russia while Ukraine muddled through with Soviet-era institutions. Russia allowed or even encouraged challenges to representational monopolies by labor organizations, while Ukraine seemed to encourage the status quo. Russia discussed and later changed the laws granting trade unions control of social funds. Ukraine did not. These state policies affected the costs and benefits of maintaining the “statist” unions or breaking away and forming new, free unions.